


your eyes whispered (have we met?)

by MagusLibera



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Ada is the smartest person here, Adorable Ada, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Season/Series 01, Single Parents, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 64,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26048923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagusLibera/pseuds/MagusLibera
Summary: Oliver Queen returns home from his five years away with the burdens of his father's sins on his shoulders. To make matters worse, he knows that his soulmate is out there, perfect and away from him and he has to somehow stay away from her.But when he bumps into a tiny, blonde ball of energy at a Queen Consolidated event and has to help her find her mother again, all of his self control comes crumbling down and he finds himself powerless to stay away from the two Smoak girls.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 249
Kudos: 535





	1. This night is sparkling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inlovewithimpossibility](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/gifts).



> The happiest of birthdays to my incredible friend Cerys. I cannot quite put into words how much I love you so here, have a fic instead. It has all of the Cerys prerequisites:  
> 1\. Taylor Swift title (Enchanted - thanks for the help Lettie!)  
> 2\. Complete loss of self control when writing it  
> 3\. One-shot became a multi-chapter  
> with bonus soulmates and Ada :D
> 
> I hope you had the best day, love you <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver meets two blondes who will change his life.

**Part One ~ _This night is sparkling_**

**Return**

_Same old tired lonely place_

Oliver stands, looking out from the large window in his hospital room at the entire city. Even late at night bright lights dot the landscape, a tapestry of life and crime laid out for all to see. From his position, he can see the bright blue of the Queen Consolidated sign towering over the whole city like a great concrete watchtower. And yet it sees nothing, the blinding lights supposedly illuminating the streets merely provide a screen between the high reaches of the expensive skyscrapers and the shadowy corners of alleyways. All around this city of lights, people are taking advantage of others.

Petty criminals see a young woman walking home alone and they hold her at knifepoint until she hands over her purse. Crime bosses use the lack of police presence in the Glades to get away with holding entire communities hostage, forcing them to pay extra taxes that they cannot afford and to send their children out into the service of the mob where they will begin a life of crime. The one percent in their tall, spotless, towers watch over it all, safe in the knowledge that they can pay off the police in order to be able to get away with providing mediocre services and take advantage of those with less.

It is a city of depravity, but it is also the city that Oliver calls home. It is the city that he has returned to, to fulfil his father’s dying wish and right the wrongs that happen every day and night. It is the city where everyone and everything that he holds most dear live, and he will do whatever it takes to give them a better home, even if that means giving his life.

His mother, he knows, is racing over to the hospital. It has been just over a week since he heard her voice again through a phone that must be decades old that had the poorest quality, but that also allowed him to talk to his mother for the first time in half a decade. Moira has been fighting tooth and nail to assure his return to Starling City ever since, in spite of his long lost passport and legally dead status, and finally he has returned to the city in which he was raised. Finally, she can come to him, as the doctors have cleared it.

It is hard to tell whether he is nervous, excited or apprehensive about seeing Moira again. Over the last five years, he has missed her dearly, of course. She and Thea have been on his mind almost every day since he left, every moment dedicated to getting back to them. But the last five years have also shown him that being solitary has a certain appeal to it. He has grown used to the peace and quiet, to anonymity and to living in the shadows. He thrives in the shadows. And now that will no longer be an option, there is no shadow dark enough to conceal him from the bright spotlight of the Queen name.

The Queen name is another burden that he must now bear, and he must bear it alone. How is he supposed to live under the same roof as his mother and sister when he knows what his father was involved in? How can he lie to them every day and then spend each night running around the city as he kills people involved in the same things, people who are his family’s peers, their friends, even?

Sighing as he thinks of everything that is to come over the next few days, of how difficult his life is about to become in a way he is no longer accustomed to, Oliver looks back out of the window. He allows his gaze to drag back over the Queen Consolidated building again, looking almost directly at the floor he knows to be the executive one, where his mother’s office is.

As allows himself to turn back to that building, the place where something deep inside his chest is pulling him, his hand automatically covers his lower left abdomen, brushing over the skin just above his hipbone where his mark lies.

Seeing that building again brings a flood of memories back. Not memories from five years or more ago, when he had been a child causing havoc with Tommy as their fathers sat in meetings together. No, the memories that assault him now whenever he looks at his family’s company building are far more recent and far more important. They take him back to just under three years ago, when he had been in Starling City on a mission with Amanda Waller, and from behind the cover of a wall, he had watched a beautiful, quirky, blonde young woman come tapping into the office in her high heels, babbling about how handsome she found him, even with that haircut.

They are of watching her lean over his desk, inspecting where he had been only moments before with the most enticing furrowed brow, and seeing her polka dot shirt come untucked from her skirt. He had, back then, felt a little guilty for looking at that exposed skin as greedily as he had, but he was drawn to her. There was something about her that put him at ease, that made him look at her differently to how he had looked at anybody over the two and a half years since the shipwreck. Something that made him realise exactly what part of her skin was being exposed and that could not help his curiosity.

And then, there in that little gap between the waistband of her skirt and the hem of her raised shirt, he had seen it. A small mark, a collection of ones and zeros that made no sense to Oliver’s untrained eyes and that he had never bothered to decipher before that day, bisected by an elegant arrow.

Lightning struck, something within his chest snapped into place, tying him to the small woman right there before him undeniably, indestructibly, eternally. His breath had hitched at the sight, heart leaping in both fear and excitement as he saw a mark that looked exactly like the one adorning his own skin, right in that very same spot. He had not dared to hope, had not wanted to believe that the beautiful, adorable young woman before him could be _his_ soulmate. That he could be irrevocably tied to her by that pull in his chest. It took his breath away, making air leave him in something resembling a whimper. The sound that involuntarily escaped him was just loud enough to for it to echo into her ears.

It caught her attention, making her head snap around and forcing him to retreat back into his hiding place as her eyes searched the area. She came closer, shirt still rucked up just enough to expose the mark upon her skin, and then she was close enough for Oliver to see it clearly even if she never caught sight of him. To know without a shadow of a doubt. Because though he had never bothered to decipher the numbers on his skin, he knew them by heart. He had looked at it enough times, greedily analysed every detail in secrecy even as he told his family, Tommy and his other friends that he did not believe in soulmates. That he did not think there would be some person out there who would be perfect for him. In truth, he did not see how he could be perfect for anybody else, he did not see how he could give anybody else what they needed. But there it was, proof that his person existed.

The mark permanently staining the girl’s skin was a perfect match for his own.

She was his soulmate.

His soulmate worked at his family’s company.

Oliver has no idea if she is still there, nor does he know her exact role within the company, but finding her had changed his life forever. He knows her first name, _Felicity_. His happiness. He knows that she is remarkable. He knows that she has his heart in the palm of her hands and she has ever since that night. He also knows that she is safer without him. Even if, in the span of just one night, she had turned his life on its head and made herself the centre of his universe, he cannot seek her out. Even if, with just one look, she had bound them together closer than he has ever been bound to anybody else, making his very being yearn for her with every moment that passes, he cannot let himself give in. She has no idea what his name is, nor did she see his face that night, so he has anonymity on his side, and can stay away from her and keep her safe. He knows he can.

Back then, finding her had been the push that he needed to keep going. He had to help his friends, Tatsu and Maseo, and he did. He had to keep his darkness away from his loved ones, so he did. Now, he has no choice but to return to his family so that he can get his job done, but he intends to keep as much distance between them and his true self, his true life, as he can. He has changed so much but they can never know that. Now, he has no choice but to return to the place where the pull to her becomes almost impossibly to ignore but he has to find a way to ignore it. Felicity can never know him, not if he is to keep her safe.

Since the night that he first saw her in his mother’s office, most of his decisions have come back to her and how they will affect her and what she would think of them. Choosing to go to Coast City two years ago had many factors, but the prevailing one in his head was that it would take him away from the temptation to seek her out. Choosing to head to Russia after the Reiter incident had, of course, allowed him to keep his promise to Taiana, but it had also removed him even further from his desire to seek out and be with his soulmate.

But now that he is home, it will be sheer force of will that will stop him from going to her. From giving in to their bond. And doing that now will be more dangerous than ever before, thanks to his night time plans. Really, though he would never change having seen her that night because it has brought him his entire world, he almost wishes that he had not. If he had never seen that mark on her skin, there would be no temptation, there would be nothing. He could have just come home, still holding on to the image of Laurel he had fantasised about to get him through the first year on Lian Yu and he would never have known any different. He could come back, easily tell Laurel that he was sorry for everything and then moved on. Stayed alone to complete his mission and end it in either his death or with the freedom to search for his soulmate and love her from the moment of their meeting for the rest of their lives. As it is, he now has to stay away by choice and nothing could be harder than knowing that she is out there, possibly still in the company building, wondering who her soulmate might be.

There is a noise outside of his hospital room, two voices speaking lowly about the multitude of scars and injuries that have been inflicted on him over the last five years, and Oliver tears his gaze from the windows that the woman of his dreams has looked out from so that he can focus on his mother and prepare himself to be Oliver Queen once again.

**Honour Thy Father**

_it was enchanting to meet you_

Pretending to stumble from the stage, Oliver ignores his furious mother and the disappointed look that Walter is giving him as he makes his way away from the opening ceremony and towards the nearest place that he can hide and regroup. It has been a trying time since his return home. He has been in the room where he found his soulmate again, and he had to rush out of there, overwhelmed by memories and the yearning desire to seek her out. Overwhelmed by the intensity of his draw to her and unable to decipher whether it was due to his proximity to the place where they draw was first born or to Felicity herself. He has also been kidnapped and attacked by multiple people, forced to kill before he was ready to truly become the Vigilante. It means that there is now a clear connection between his return and the arrival of the Vigilante, but Oliver has plans to deal with that.

More troublesome is the bodyguard his mother hired after the kidnapping. Diggle is diligent and observant and it is becoming harder and harder to give the other man the slip. But Diggle also has a broad understanding of the world, the city and he has military training. It has been giving Oliver ideas, but he is not yet prepared to put them into action.

Additionally, Thea saw his scars. In Oliver’s plans to protect his family by keeping his mission a secret and staying distant, what he had not considered was how difficult it would be for them. How hurt they would be to get him back only for them to not really get them back. For them to have to learn that the boy who stepped onto that boat died when it sank and was buried with the body of his father. That the man who returned was not one they knew. Thea is so observant now, she has noticed how much he is holding back from them. She told him to open up to somebody, and he knows that she hopes that it will be her, but the thought of getting her involved in any of this terrifies him and he would rather have her safe and distant than be open with her and have her wind up dead.

Oliver is so preoccupied by his thoughts about the chaos that has become his life in the short amount of time that he has been home, in maintaining his drunken appearance as he slips into the Queen Consolidated Applied Sciences building to hide, and by the searing pull towards Felicity that is only increasing with every passing minute that he spends next to QC, that he does not spot the tiny little thing that bumps into his legs until it goes sprawling to the floor upon contact. He looks down, thinking that it must be some sort of animal or a fire hydrant or something equally unimportant, but instead sees a tiny, spindly little girl with bright blonde, wavy hair, blinking up at him with wide blue eyes where she has fallen over.

“Oh my god!” he exclaims, heart jumping with concern that he has flattened the toddler without meaning to, “Hey, are you okay?” he asks gently, crouching down to her level.

“M’okay.” She confirms, allowing him to help her to her feet so that her face reaches up to his chin but no higher, even though he is crouched down, ignoring the possibility of damaging the expensive blue-grey fabric of his suit. She is wearing a tiny pink dress, the hem of the skirt just about hitting her knees with panda cartoons dotted in black and white across the fabric and matching the black and white flats that she is wearing. She is, in a word, adorable. Endearing.

“What are you doing?” he asks softly, steadying her before him, “Where are your parents?”

“Momma brought me seein’ new ‘pplied sciences building!” The girl explains excitedly, “She say it gonna be ‘mazing. She pwomised she take me to labs an’ show me ‘round an’ she took day off work and ev’rything!”

“And where’s your momma now, kiddo?”

The girl blushes, “I ran ‘way ‘cause she talking boring gwown up talk an’ I wanna see inside.”

Oliver instinctively gives her a reprimanding look that has her looking to the floor, ashamed, “Don’t you think your momma will be worrying about you if you’ve run off though.”

“Yes.” The girl admits.

“Okay, how’s this? I’m going to help you find your momma and then I’ll make sure that you both get plenty of time to look at all of the labs and equipment together?”

Beaming, the girl squeals, “Yes!” but then she gets a little frown, “Uh… my momma says no talkin’ to strangers, she say if I gets lost I gotta find someone safe an’ find her.”

Whilst he is pleased that the girl is being taught safety around strangers, this does throw a wrench in the works briefly until Oliver comes up with a possible work around, “What’s your name, kiddo?”

“My name’s Ada!” she declares.

“Okay, Ada, do you know where your momma works?” he has a hunch, and hopes that he is right.

“Yes.” Ada nods eagerly, “Momma’s real smart. She works wi’ ‘puters at Queen Con… con… cona‘solited.” She butchers the word Consolidated adorably.

“Do you know who the boss of your momma’s company is, Ada?” Ada shakes her head, “The boss is a lady called Moira Queen.” He tells her, “And my name is Oliver Queen, because Moira is my momma.” Ada gapes at him, “So, you see, you know my name and I know your name now, so we’re not strangers anymore, and you know I’m safe because your momma works for my family. Is that okay?”

Ada thinks about it for a moment, her face scrunching up in a strangely familiar way to Oliver. Actually, everything about her is strangely familiar, but he cannot work out why. “Okay.” Ada finally announces, “You can help me find my momma, ‘Liver.” And then she takes his hand in her tiny one, fingers barely wrapping around two of his fingers and her arm stretched so high once he stands up that she practically has to go on her tiptoes to hold on.

Chuckling, Oliver crouches back down, “How about I carry you until we find your momma, Ada? Would that be okay?”

“Yep!” Ada reaches her arms up and allows Oliver to pick her up. He cannot help but notice just how miniscule she is in his arms. He reckons that one of his arms would weigh more than her entire body does, and from head to toe she can barely be more than two foot tall.

“Okay, you let me know if you see your momma.” Oliver instructs her, holding her tightly as he looks around for help.

“How old are you, Ada?” he asks, trying to distract the little girl from the possibility of her realising she is lost with only a stranger to help.

“I’m two!” she holds up two fingers proudly, looking for all the world like she has achieved something magnificent. Which Oliver supposes she has, she seems far too clever for a two year old.

“And why did you want to come see the QC applied sciences building today? Not many little kids your age would want to do that.”

“I wanna be just like my momma when I’m growed up!” Ada smiles, “She says I’m real smart too, she teachin’ me ‘bout science an’ ‘puters all the time at home an’ I know all my numbers to a hund’ed now an’ I can read an’ I know all my bin’ry to eight bits too!”

Oliver does not even know all of his binary to eight bits (he is not entirely certain about what eight bits are) and, if he is correct, he has had binary written across his skin ever since a month and a half after his fourth birthday.

“That’s very impressive.”

“I know.” Ada says, matter of fact. It does not come across as cocky, it is just adorable. The little girl’s mother must be doing a good job to have a child with as much confidence and self-worth and understanding as this little girl, “Momma say she gonna get a job in ‘pplied sciences so we can come here ev’ry day an’ I can see the fancy ‘puters!”

Her words interest Oliver, but before he can say anything, Ada lets out a squeal and starts to wiggle in his arms, “I wan’ down, ‘Liver.” She demands.

“Okay.” He agrees, “But you have to promise to keep hold of my hand so I don’t lose you before we can find your momma, okay.”

“Yes, yes! Down!” she replies in that cute, frustrated manner that little children often have.

Oliver slides her down his hip, going slowly so that he does not hurt her when her feet touch the floor and then he takes her hand once she is secure on the ground. The movement causes for his shirt to untuck and rise, exposing the patch of skin that he rarely shows to anyone. The place where his mark lies. Ada gasps, eyes on that spot, and then her hands are grabbing all over him, trying to lift up his shirt again, “You got a mark on your hip!” she excitedly exclaims, “You have a mark! My momma’s got a mark there too! Look, look!” she has finally jumped high enough to grip at the hem of his shirt and she pulls on it, half hanging from the fabric, tucking her head down so that she can see his mark.

“Ada!” Oliver hisses, “Stop it, get down!”

But Ada is already squealing, “Tha’s the same as my momma’s mark! Tha’s my momma’s mark! You and my momma have the same mark, that means you’s soulmates!” she says it with awe, like the word is holy. Oliver can see her little mind whirring, and then she speaks again, slower this time, “And if you’s my momma’s soulmate that means you’s my daddy! Hi Daddy!” He chokes.

Spluttering, Oliver tries to deny it, “I… I can’t be your daddy, Ada. That’s not possible.”

Ada looks hurt at his denial, “But… Momma say my daddy is her soulmate. She say he went far away, but he woulda loved me lots like she does.” She looks on the verge of tears, “Don’ you love me? Why don’ you wanna be my daddy?”

Oliver has no idea how to answer her, but does his best to be diplomatic, “It’s not that I wouldn’t want to be your daddy, Ada, it’s just that it’s not possible. I’ve been gone for a very long time and I don’t even know who your momma is.”

The big tears gathering in the corners of Ada’s eyes subside and she smiles again, “But if you’s my daddy you’d wanna be?”

“Uh… sure.” It is not that Ada would be a bad daughter. In fact, in the short time that Oliver has spent with her, he has grown very fond of her, and finds himself wanting to know more about the strange, science-obsessed two year old. But he is not exactly in a position to be anybody’s father, and he cannot imagine how he could be hers.

But his words make Ada beam, “Yay!” she throws herself at him, “Hi, Daddy!” Oliver finds himself standing with an armful of Ada, the little girl snuggling into him, “Le’s go find Momma and she show you’s my daddy and we spend _forever_ together.”

Not wanting to upset the toddler again, and slightly thrown by her mood swings, Oliver focuses on something other than the girl’s assumed paternity, “Did you say your momma has the same mark as me?”

“Yep!” Ada giggles, her hands in Oliver’s scruff as she lets it tickle her, “Lotsa bin’ry an’ a arrow.”

Oliver’s heart leaps, and he takes in Ada’s appearance again. Her familiarity. His mind flashes with the sight of blonde locks and red lips and big, emotive blue eyes and that identical patch of skin he had seen on her. He must be imagining it, he must be projecting somehow, but he gets an unshakable feeling that Ada looks just like a particular woman he had met almost three years prior. A woman who he had run from, finishing his mission and then trying to return home, only to find a message from his father to he and his sister that sent him back into the arms of Amanda Waller.

A woman who, just before going back to his mission, he had tracked down and visited, hood on and face obscured, but his mark on display.

But, no. It is not possible. Not possible that the little girl in Oliver’s arms could be _hers_. Let alone… no. He must be imagining things.

But the way that Ada is babbling away in his arms, bright and alert and happy, it is so reminiscent of her. It is hard to stop drawing comparisons. And then Ada perks up, “Tha’s Momma! Tha’s Momma!” she is pointing just ahead to where a short, equally blonde woman is walking around frantically, eyes low down as she looks for something, “Momma!” Ada yells, “Momma!” the young woman’s head snaps up, clocking the sight of Oliver with her daughter in his arms, and she rushes over.

But Oliver cannot hear anything anymore beyond the rushing of his blood in his ears. He can feel nothing but the pull in his chest snapping into place, the object of his attraction finally right before him. All that he can see is the beautiful woman rushing towards him, a bright blue dress drawing out the colour of her eyes, her eyes that are totally focused on the little girl he is holding.

“Ada!” she cries, “Ada, where have you been?” her arms reach out, taking the child from Oliver. He forgets to let go, holding on to Ada as if she is the only thing keeping him grounded as he stares back into the eyes of the woman to whom his soul belongs.

With a concerned look, she finally takes Ada back into her arms, and then she focuses on him, “I know who you are!” she squeaks, shocked, “You’re Mister Queen.”

She does not recognise him. Of course she does not. She never saw his face, not once. He was careful about that. “No.” he manages to say, barely cognizant of what is happening, “Mister Queen was my father.”

“Right, but he’s dead. I mean he drowned!” she looks horrified at the words coming out of her mouth, “But you didn’t. Which means you could come to the new applied sciences building and pretend to be drunk and irresponsible and then somehow find my runaway daughter and bring her back to me and listen to me babble. Which will end. In three… two… one.”

Oliver cannot help his smile, images racing through his mind of her babbling something very similar at him when he showed up in her house and exposed his mark to her. Of her voice, the last time that he heard it only hours after the first time, rough and sleepy and everything that he could ever have dreamt of.

He shakes his head a little, dispelling the images of the past and refocusing on the present, “I bumped into her.” He explains, “And I promised I’d help her find her momma again, and she said that’s… _you_.” He looks at Ada again, seeing now that she does indeed look like a carbon copy of her mother, but her eyes… her eyes are lighter. Light enough to be… he shakes his head again. There is no way. _No way_. Except… there _is_. There is, and he knows it. But he cannot entertain the thought right now.

“Well, thank you.” Felicity flushes, “I’m sorry if she caused you any bother, she’s just really eager to see the labs.”

“Yeah,” Oliver says, “She told me. She’s very clever.”

Felicity grins proudly, “Yes, she is.”

Ada, growing tired of being talked about but left out of the conversation, pipes up, “Momma,” she says excitedly, “This is ‘Liver! He my daddy!”

Felicity jolts, “No, Ada, you can’t just say that to people.” She blushes, looking apologetically at Oliver, “And you know that’s not possible.”

“Yes it is!” Ada insists, frustrated, “You say my daddy had gone far away an’ couldn’t come back. ‘Liver’s back now an’ he got the same mar-”

“Ada, stop this now.” Felicity says, voice hard and a haunted look in her eyes, “I told you, your daddy and I met a long time before you were born but when you were in my tummy, he had to leave and he could never come back. Oliver here has been on a deserted island for five years, it’s not possible for him to be your daddy.”

Ada looks devastated, “But-”

“No, Ada.” Felicity interrupts, “What did I tell you about babies?”

“You say babies need forty weeks for growin’ in their momma’s tummy before they big ‘nough to come out.” Ada parrots.

“And if Mister Oliver here has been on an island since years before you were born and for years after too, is it possible for him to be your daddy?” _Yes_. Oliver thinks, _if he was only on that island for two years instead of five_. But he says nothing, doubt filling his mind.

“No.” Ada says, looking to Oliver for something but he does not know what. He has no idea how to comfort her and it hurts to think that he cannot make her happy, “Bu-”

“Ada, Oliver is not your daddy. You know I don’t like talking about your daddy, baby, because he can’t come back to us. I don’t want to hear any more about this.”

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Ada buries herself into Felicity’s neck, peeking at Oliver sorrowfully. Felicity looks immensely guilty for the turn that the conversation has taken, but she just adjusts her grip on her daughter in her hands, rubbing the child’s back to comfort her and turns back to Oliver.

“I’m so sorry.” She says, “Ada’s always had a fascination with her father, which is understandable, but since he will never be able to be around for her, I sometimes have to remind her not to get carried away. I’m sorry if she made you uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable is not how Oliver is feeling. Heartbroken is more accurate, because that brief moment of hope that Ada had given him (no matter how complicated it would have made things) has been squashed by Felicity’s words.

Because there is no way that Ada could be his. Felicity would have said something if she thought that there was any chance of him being the man she met all those years ago. She would have demanded to know whether or not he has their mark, and then wanted to see it to confirm, surely. But she has not. And, additionally, if Ada is already two years old, the time does not add up. If Ada is already two, Felicity must have already been pregnant when they met, she must just not have known it at the time. Because they met in late January of twenty-ten, and Ada would have been born in late October or even November, and her second birthday would have been fast approaching, not already past, had she been Oliver’s. Not in September or whenever Ada’s birthday is for the tiny girl to already be two.

And Felicity said that Ada’s father is unable to return to them. That must mean that he is dead or gone in a similarly permanent way, not that he simply came to her for a night, face hidden, and then vanished by the morning. As far as she is concerned, there is every chance of her soulmate finding her again, of him coming back to them as Oliver has. So there is no way that Oliver can be Ada’s father, because he can come back to them, and Felicity is adamant that Ada’s father cannot.

Not to mention that Felicity just claimed to have known Ada’s father a long time before her birth. There is no way that she can be describing her soulmate there, they knew each other in the most intimate and intense ways possible but have never truly known one another. No, Ada’s father must be a man she had known for a long time, who then got her pregnant and was removed from their lives permanently by some awful circumstances. It must mean that when Oliver had gone to her that night, she was still in mourning for the loss of whoever he had been, and she possibly even regrets their time together. That must be why she never mentioned anything about her soulmate, she must be terribly conflicted about it all, and Oliver is not helping.

He is just a complication in her life. An inconvenience. And, though she does not know it, a potential danger to both her and her daughter. The little girl who, even though she cannot possibly be his, he already adores just by virtue of her being a part of Felicity, the wonderful young woman to whom his soul is tied.

Ada cannot change anything. No matter how much greater Oliver’s yearning for Felicity has grown during this interaction that has allowed him to be able to look into her eyes without any concealment or lies. To see what a wonderful mother she is to the beautiful little girl who charmed Oliver without even trying. The feeling is beyond compare. It makes his mind fill with images of half a dozen little Adas running around, all looking just like their mother and smiling up at him and calling him ‘Daddy’. It forces him to taste the life that he is sacrificing to keep his promise to his father, the woman he is losing his chance with.

  
Because even if his mission does one day end, he cannot expect Felicity to wait for him until then. He cannot reveal to her who they are to one another without increasing the danger that she is in just because she is unfortunate enough to be his soulmate. He cannot risk Ada. And by the time that his mission is over, Felicity is sure to have found somebody new. Somebody is sure to have realised what an incredible woman she is and they are bound to want to love her immediately, to marry her and grow their family together and Oliver cannot begrudge her that. He knows that he has to let her go, let her move on and be happy. It is for the best.

No matter how much being away from her hurts. No matter how much not knowing more about Ada will destroy him. It is what he has to do. He can offer them nothing anyway, only danger and pain and heartbreak. They both deserve better than that.

Oliver clears his throat, not having answered Felicity for far too long, “No.” he manages to say, “No, it’s okay. I know she means no harm by it. Her actual father is lucky to have a daughter as delightful as she is.”

“He would have been.” Felicity smiles sadly, confirming that Ada’s father must have met some awful fate to Oliver’s mind, “Thank you for finding my daughter and keeping her safe, Mist- Oliver.”

“It was my pleasure,” he chokes out past the lump in his throat that is swelling as he draws ever closer to the inevitable moment of their parting, “Here, follow me.” He offers and she does, “These two are to get VIP treatment.” He addresses one of the security guards, “Make sure that they get to see all of the best spots, whatever they want.”

Eyes wide, Felicity stammers, “Thank you so much! You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to.” Oliver assures her, “Ada told me how much she loves science and it’s important to encourage young minds to take an interest in learning stuff. Who knows? One day she could change the world.”

His words are enough for Ada to resurface from her mother’s neck, eyes red from crying and face blotchy in a way that Oliver should not find adorable but does, “I gonna change the world.” She informs him, “Gonna make a ‘puter better than any ‘puter before!” Felicity smiles adoringly at her child.

“I have no doubts that you will, little Ada.” Oliver tells her, “Well, enjoy the building.” And then he turns to go.

“Wait!” a small voice yells in obvious distress. He waits. Of course he does, he is powerless to do anything different, “Where you going?” Ada asks, scared.

“I’ve got to go now, Ada, but I hope you enjoy your time looking around.”

“You not coming?” her voice is wobbling.

Oliver wants nothing more than to rush over to her and hold both Ada and Felicity in his arms as he tells them that he will never, ever leave them again. That he will always be there for both of them. But he cannot say that, “No, Ada. I’m sorry. I’ve got some business to take care of.”

And this time when he turns to leave, he does not turn back. Not even when he hears Ada start to wail in distress, insisting to Felicity that he is her father and she wants him back. His heart breaks, he wishes that he could go and tell her that he is her father, or that he will be no matter whose genetics made her. He wants to show Felicity his mark, and hold her close forever and never let go again. Not when letting her go is tearing him apart. Not when it has now torn him apart twice as he has torn himself from her and stretched their bond agonisingly in their separation. But he steels his heart and does not give in, repeating all of the reasons why they are better off without him like a mantra as he walks.

**Lone Gunmen**

_Shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face_

Oliver spends the next few days in a state of both shock and pain and it all comes out as fury. Tearing himself away from her – staying away – it is like a physical injury. A bereavement. He can barely handle the pain that it is causing for him to keep himself from her and can only hope that he is the only one being affected since it was his decision to walk away both times and she still does not know about their connection.

He throws himself into his mission like never before, like that will somehow make up for the fact that he found his soulmate and left her again without even telling her who they are to one another. It does not, but he has to hold on to something. If he cannot have the family of his dreams, then he has to have his mission. He has to succeed in keep his promise to his father if he is giving up everything in order to do so. He has to make his sacrifice worthwhile.

His mission brings him into contact with a dangerous assassin named Floyd Lawton, a man who laces his bullets with a deadly poison, curare. After a confrontation with the man, Oliver comes out with a bullet ridden laptop, completely destroyed but it is the only lead that Oliver has, so he needs it to pan out for him. Because of this, he is forced to return to the company building, feeling his chest sear with that pull the entire time that he draws closer, and requests of Walter a person who could best help him with his issue. Walter does not even think about it before he is recommending a ‘Miss Smoak’, who is, apparently, a computer genius.

Oliver heads down several floors from the executive offices to where the IT department is located. He cannot help but look for a blonde head in the crowds around the building, wondering where his soulmate might be. What her job might be. He remembers Ada’s fascination with science and computers and thinks that Felicity most likely works in computer sciences or research and development. That would also put her in the running to get transferred to applied sciences, which he remembers Ada mentioning.

He looks around the department, coming across a whole lot of monitors and a lot of noise as the staff work on whatever issues the company is having that day. But none of them are who Oliver is looking for. Walter had said that Miss Smoak has a shared office off to the side of the department where she can do her job more efficiently, as she has a lot of extra responsibilities as the genius of the department. Walter is very fond of Miss Smoak, Oliver can tell just from the couple of minutes that he had watched his stepfather talk about her.

Fully expecting a mousy middle aged woman with pictures of cats littering every spare section of her desk, Oliver finds an office with a plaque that reads, ‘ _R. Olson, Deputy Head of IT and F. Smoak, IT Dept._ ’. He knocks but does not await a response, simply pushing open a door and walking into the room. It is bright and colourful, something that Oliver had not expected. There is also a distinct lack of cats, instead there is just one photograph on the desk. One of two adorable blondes smiling at a camera. Two blondes who Oliver recognises extremely well.

He has no time to retreat before she is turning around, very much not middle aged or mousy, but beautiful and young and everything that Oliver has been dreaming about for years in her formal but incredibly flattering outfit, a red pen in her mouth, “ _Felicity_ Smoak.” He says, eyes wide and laptop still in hand, “Your surname is Smoak.”

“Mister Queen!” she says, surprised, “You’re in my office! Which you know. You came here. Of your own free will. Or, well, I presume it was of your own free will… if it wasn’t please let me know, you shouldn’t be doing things against you’re will, blink three times if you’re here against your will!”

“I- I’m here willingly, Felicity.” He laughs, thrilled to be experiencing her babble for the third time in what is really their third first meeting as this time he finally knows her full name. Felicity Smoak, “And it’s Oliver, remember?”

“Uh… yes, Oliver.”

“I must admit, I wasn’t expecting it to be _you_ – not that that’s a bad thing, it… it’s good to see you again – but I’ve been having some troubles with my computer, and they told me you were the best person to come and see about it.” He explains, trying to keep himself at the task on hand.

Felicity blushes, “Oh well… I suppose I am.”

“I was at a coffee shop,” Oliver tells her, “Surfing the web, and I spilt a latte on it.” He hands her the laptop.

“Really?” she questions incredulously, “Because… these look like bullet holes.”

Sensing that she is close to figuring something out, and wanting to make himself less interesting to her so as to keep his distance, Oliver blurts out the first excuse that comes to mind, “My coffee shop is in a bad neighbourhood.” She levels a look at him that clearly shows that she does not believe a word that he is saying and Oliver has to physically restrain himself from cringing at his own vanishing ability to lie where she is concerned, “If there is anything that you could do to salvage it,” he pushes on, hoping that she will forget about what he just said, “I would be eternally grateful.” He would be eternally grateful to her for just existing.

Closing her eyes in a manner well suited to a mother being frustrated with a poor lie, Felicity sighs and then smiles at him, nodding. Oliver knows that he should leave. He should walk out and let her get on with her work and then come back later, offer her a quick thank you and then leave her to her life forever. But this could be (and should be) the last time that he ever gets to see her, because he will avoid the QC IT department like the plague from here on out in order to maintain his distance from her. And since this time seeing her is an accident that could not be avoided, Oliver cannot help but take advantage of it.

Instead of walking out like he knows he should, Oliver grabs the chair that he assumes must belong to _R. Olson, Deputy Head of IT_ and draws it up to Felicity’s side. She looks surprised that he is staying, and stares at him with wide eyes for a moment before she dives back into her work, disassembling the laptop. Oliver quietly watches as she works, marvelling at the ease with which she handles the damaged technology and trying not to think about how beautiful she looks with those pink lips and her flowy blouse and tight skirt. It would be a bad idea to dwell too much on that.

Knowing that, really, to avoid any more slip ups like his poor excuse for bringing her a bullet ridden laptop, he should stay silent, Oliver does the exact opposite. He seems to lose all of his cool, collected smarts the second that he is in the same room as her, “So… did Ada enjoy the applied sciences building?” he asks, unable to not ask about the little girl who had so quickly wormed her way into his heart.

Felicity is taken aback by the question, like she had not expected him to remember her or her daughter, “Oh… well, she cried for about half of it, but once I showed her to the server room, she cheered up a little and I think she liked it.”

Oliver winces, “I’m sorry about that. I don’t know how she got so attached to the idea of me being her father so quickly. I swear I didn’t encourage it.”

“Well she thought that…” Felicity stops herself, “Never mind, it’s silly, there’s no way…” Oliver wants to ask her what is silly, but Felicity stops him by continuing to speak, “Anyway, it’s not your fault. Toddlers can be like that sometimes. Their moods are a rollercoaster. Honestly, sometimes I swear she has more moods swings than I did when I was pregnant and hormonal.” Her cheeks turn bright red, “Which you did not need to know.” She mutters, burying herself back into her work. Oliver cannot help but wonder just how Felicity would look in his bed, pregnant and hormonal with his child a few years from now.

He smiles, charmed, “No, it’s fine. It’s normal, and I like hearing about Ada. She’s a wonderful little girl, you’ve done a fantastic job raising her.”

“Oh, thank you.” The way that she says it tells Oliver that his words actually mean a lot to her. That she doubts her parenting style, “She’s been talking about you non-stop, you know?”

“Really?” Oliver asks, surprised but ecstatic in no small way.

“Yeah, you really made an impression, she likes you a lot.” Oliver cannot contain his grin, thankful that Felicity is preoccupied with his laptop and cannot see his joy at Ada remembering her. It is only thinking about how it is a bad thing that Ada has grown so attached to him, and how he can never see her again, that sobers him up and wipes away hig grin.

“Well, I likes her a lot too.” He tells Felicity, “She really is a wonderful child.”

Felicity beams, “Obviously I agree, but I’m a little biased, being her mother and all.”

“I take it that she gets her love of computers from you,” Oliver gestures to where her hand is shoved inside the casing of his laptop, prising it open.

“Yeah, I guess. She just picks stuff up so quickly, I finally understand what it was like for my mom when I was little.” Felicity smiles fondly, thinking about her daughter.

“I can imagine. She’s very spirited.” Oliver chuckles, “If you were even half as lively as she was, you must have been quite entertaining.”

“More like a handful.”

“But I’d imagine that whatever troubles you caused, your mother was happy to deal with if it meant having you.”

Felicity is spared the necessity of responding as she hooks up the hard drive of his laptop to her own, and begins to explain what she has done as they look through the files. It reminds Oliver of his mission. It reminds him that, no matter how much he wants to just sit with Felicity all day every day and learn more about her and Ada, he cannot and so as soon as he has the information that he needs, he rushes from the room, back on track.

**An Innocent Man**

_Walls of insecurity_

The last few weeks have been crazy for Felicity and Ada, ever since they met Oliver Queen. Felicity has been extremely busy at work, trying to prove herself to the higher ups at the company so that she can put herself in good standing to get transferred to applied sciences when their computer sciences department opens up. Additionally, she has been experiencing a strange tugging sensation in her chest. It is more of an annoyance than anything else, but she will occasionally experience pain from it and seems to be feeling phantom pains from non-existent injuries in various places on her body – usually her arms and torso.

She has also been dealing with Ada, who asks to see Oliver every single day several times. The girl has stopped referring to Oliver as ‘my daddy’, but Felicity knows that whatever notion Ada got upon meeting the billionaire has not yet dissipated, and Ada is determined to prove that Oliver is truly her father. The only reason that it has stopped is because Felicity threatened to revoke Ada’s computer privileges should the child not stop being inappropriate.

Felicity wishes that he were Ada’s dad, if he was that would mean that her soulmate was finally back in her life again. But he is not, and he cannot be. Oliver was on a deserted island when Ada was conceived, there is no way that he is the man who stole into her home and showed her his marked skin and whispered sweet nothings in her ear all night long. No way. Not even if his voice seems very familiar to the one she had heard under the voice modulator. That can only be a coincidence.

But Felicity cannot deny that Oliver has caught her attention too. He is an enigma. He comes back from five years of isolation, pretending to be drunk at a highly public function and then suddenly switches from the image of irresponsible playboy to a caring man helping a lost toddler find her mother. He had been so good with Ada, and hearing Ada ramble on about Oliver being her father and then coming home and listening to Ada insist that Oliver has the same mark imprinted into him as Felicity has had put thoughts into her head that she did not want to contemplate. Thoughts about how Ada did sort of have a similar eye shape and colour to Oliver. Thoughts about how inexplicably drawn to Oliver Felicity was every time she came across any mention of him.

It is impossible though. Even if Oliver is amazing with Ada, Felicity highly doubts that he would ever want to get involved with a nerdy single mother working for his family’s company. So there is no way that Oliver will ever be Ada’s father, and Felicity doubts that she will ever see him again. The two times that they have interacted have been pure chance, a third will not come.

Ada is safely asleep in bed (but not before asking Felicity if Oliver would come around soon as she was being tucked in) when Felicity turns on the news. There has been a particular case lately that has caught her attention. A guy called Peter Declan murdered his wife in front of their infant child, in the child’s bedroom. Felicity has no partner, she does not even know Ada’s father’s name, but she does know that she could never possibly do something like that. It is awful.

The news starts with an announcement that Declan is innocent, and is returning home to his baby daughter, exonerated of all charges as it becomes apparent that a shady millionaire called Jason Brodeur was behind the murder of the wife, after she found dirt on him and threatened to expose him. Felicity feels sick, loathing the awful man for hurting that family like that. How could anybody be so evil as to murder a woman in her child’s bedroom? It does not bear thinking about, Felicity cannot imagine something like that happening to Ada.

The story moves on quickly when a _BREAKING NEWS_ story flashes across the screen. _Oliver Queen is arrested on suspicion of being the vigilante who has been dubbed ‘The Hood’ by the inhabitants of Starling City._ Reads the reporter, _This vigilante is the point of heavy contention around the city as some praise the work that he is doing cleaning up the crime in the Glades that often goes unpunished by the SCPD, but others look to his methods and think him too extreme as he is known to have killed multiple of his victims._

Felicity is in shock, her mind flashing to the kind smile that Oliver had given her and Ada as he handed the child back to Felicity and then to the images of the impaled corpses the vigilante has left in his wake. She thinks about how Oliver had asked her about Ada as he sat down next to her, looking genuinely interested, and then she thinks about how he had brought her a bullet ridden computer with the names Floyd Lawton and Warren Patel attached to them, only a day before an auction involving the latter and an attack from the former had gone down, Vigilante present.

It makes so much sense, Oliver being the vigilante. It would explain a lot about him and his behaviour since returning, even his supposed drunkenness at the opening ceremony. He must be trying to play up to his pre-island image to keep people off his scent. But it has not worked. He is under arrest, and according to the news, there is some fairly indisputable video evidence tying him to the vigilante’s actions. Felicity gulps. On the one hand, she does not agree with the vigilante murdering so many of his victims, but on the other, she can see the good that he is doing. And she knows that, whatever happened on that island, Oliver has been through enough. He is probably all kinds of messed up and has been more than punished for any wrongs he has committed. He does not deserve to go to prison.

She has no idea how he is going to get out of this situation, but she truly hopes that he does.

**Damaged**

_I’m wonderstruck, blushing all the way home_

“Okay baby girl, this is going to have to be a really short trip, okay?” Felicity tells Ada, trying not to get too swept up in the utter delight on her daughter’s face and she lifts her from the backseat of her Mini.

“Why?” Ada asks, “Is ‘Liver busy?”

“I… I’m not really sure how busy he is baby, but we’re dropping in unannounced and that’s not really very polite.”

Ada suddenly looks very worried, “But we have to use our manners, Momma. What if ‘Liver is mad ‘cause we were rude?”

Feeling a certain degree of pride at how well she has taught her daughter her manners, Felicity explains, “Well, I don’t know how to get in touch with him because I don’t have his phone number, so this was the only way for us to see him.”

Ada chews her lip, weighing up how much she wants to see Oliver against her fear of being rude, “Wha’ if he don’t like me anymore ‘cause I was rude?”

“Oh, baby.” Felicity focuses on her daughter, “He won’t stop liking you. Not when you’re doing something so nice for him. It’s just that if Oliver is busy, we shouldn’t stay long because we don’t want to impose.”

Nodding her understanding, Ada looks a little happier with the situation, “Wha’s im-pose, Momma?” she asks, forming the word carefully so that she says it correctly.

“Imposing is when you force your company on somebody for too long when they don’t want it. It’s like overstaying your welcome.”

“Wha’s overstaying?”

“Staying more than is acceptable.”

“An’ ‘Liver doesn’t want us to stay?” Ada asks, a little upset, “He don’t wanna see me?”

“I’m sure he does, Ada. But if he’s busy, he just won’t be able to see you for long, and besides it’s already nearing your bedtime so we need to get you home and sleeping. Okay?” Ada nods, looking surly at the reminder of her approaching bedtime. Felicity feels guilty for doing something like this so close to when Ada should be sleeping, but she did not have time during the day and finished work late, so night was the only time that she could do it.

Felicity walks from where the guard had directed her to park her car, looking at her suspiciously and confusedly when he spotted Ada in the back of her car. It is a little ways off from the house, and there had actually been several cars there too. Felicity assumes that they must belong to staff or something. The Queen estate is vast, and there must be a whole army of people working to keep it in tip-top shape on a daily basis.

Ada wriggles to the ground, one hand clenched tightly around the handles of a bag that she has refused to let go of since they got in the car and the other hanging from Felicity’s. There is a bounce in her step as she looks in wonder at the greenery of the estate, taking in every sight that she can. For the thousandth time, Felicity wonders if she should be here, at the Queen Mansion, about to head in uninvited. To be honest, it is a miracle that she got past the gates without being extensively questioned by the guards and she still cannot figure out how she managed that.

But after much deliberation and debate, Felicity decided that her daughter’s happiness is more important than any perceived slight that she could do to Oliver and his family, and if this is what it takes to make Ada happy then so be it. The last few days have been filled with Ada begging to go to visit Oliver, as she has something that she wishes to give him. Felicity does not know what as Ada refuses to tell her, claiming that it is between her and Oliver, but from what she understands from what Ada will tell her, the little girl somehow found out about Oliver’s arrest and knows that he is in trouble and sad and wants to cheer him up. Cheering him up seems to involve whatever is in that bag (something that she made in day care, no doubt) and seeing Oliver face to face.

They have been walking for a couple of minutes, Ada wandering as far as Felicity’s arm will allow her, when they turn past a hedge and find themselves at the end of an absurdly long driveway, leading up to an even more absurdly large house. It is not even a house, nor is it a mansion. More like a castle. Actually, Felicity can see a bona fide tower coming from one part of the house. It _is_ a castle.

“Woah.” Ada gasps, “This where ‘Liver lives?” she voices Felicity’s thoughts,

“Yep.” Felicity squeaks, suddenly faced with a very tangible reminder that this is not just where Oliver lives, but also his family. Including his mother and stepfather, the owner and CEO of the company at which Felicity is employed. Her mind is screaming at her to abort the mission, to stage a hasty retreat and forget this entire hare-brained idea, but there is a tiny toddler pulling eagerly on her arm that makes running for it impossible. She cannot let Ada get this far and then take it away from her.

“It big.” Ada marvels, her steps growing a little less sure in the shadow of the daunting structure.

“Sure is, baby.” Felicity says with a good deal of false bravado, “But this is the place.”

“Is ‘Liver a prince?” Ada asks genuinely.

Felicity laughs a little, “Sort of.” She tells her daughter, thinking about Oliver’s surname and his family’s place in the city.

Taking lead from her mother, Ada draws herself up as much as she can and starts to march forwards again, “Let’s go find Prince ‘Liver!” she orders, determination written across her face. Felicity only stops herself from laughing by reminding herself of where she is and what she is doing.

As they draw closer to the house, Felicity notices a constant stream of people entering and exiting, but all of them are dressed in a strange combination of expensive, designer brand clothing and stripes and greys that look a suspicious amount like stereotypical prison uniforms. Felicity frowns, wondering what is going on, and then she hears the music. There is some sort of party. Somebody is having a party inside and it looks to be attended by the rich and powerful youth of the city.

  
Gulping, Felicity thinks that she knows exactly who is having the party and why, based on the attire of the attendees. Apprehension fills her, and she realises more than ever before what a terrible idea it was to give in to Ada’s requests, but before she can think of some excuse to leave that will not totally shatter the girl’s heart, Ada brightens up, “Look, Momma!” she squeals, “Prince ’Liver’s having a party!” Felicity almost loses her grip on her child when the girl rushes forwards, straining to get into the mansion.

“Ada, baby.” Felicity tries, “It looks like Oliver’s busy. I don’t think he’s going to have time to talk to you, maybe we should come back another day?” But Ada is not listening as they have walked through the front doors and are surrounded by squealing people in their twenties, having the times of their lives. Ada looks thunderstruck, both frightened of all the tall people rushing around her and enthralled by it all. Felicity is overwhelmed by the intensity of the party, and cannot help but think that Oliver having a prison themed party when under house arrest is perhaps an even worse idea than her bringing her barely-older-than-an-infant daughter to the house of a man she has only met twice, both of which interactions had been extremely strange, just because the girl wants to give him a present to cheer him up.

But there is something about Oliver that has him on Felicity’s mind constantly. Maybe it is that he is almost definitely the Hood guy, and Felicity’s mystery solving brain cannot help but try to work him out. But it feels like more than that, more than just the intrigue that he has about him. Felicity would be lying if she were to say that she did not wonder about Ada’s claim over their matching marks, but she knows how absurd that is. Impossible. And yet… she is still drawn to him like a moth to a flame. But no. Surely he would have said something if he were the man who came to her the night that Ada was conceived. Surely he would want to know his daughter, if he knew that he was her father. So he cannot be.

Nevertheless, Felicity still finds herself coming back to him. He is in her mind, and now she has allowed herself to be dragged into Ada’s scheming to get closer to Oliver, just because she wants to get closer to him herself. Felicity is so deep in her thoughts and so overwhelmed by the chaos that is Oliver’s house that her grip on Ada’s wrist loosens for a fraction of a second, just enough that the child is able to slip free, gleefully wandering into the party.

  
“Ada!” Felicity yells, panic filling her as her daughter vanishes into a forest of bodies, hand still clasped around the bag, “Ada!” she cannot see her daughter and it is almost as terrifying as when she lost her at the applied sciences opening ceremony. And then she sees a massive man making his way through the crowd, towering over most of the others. And in his humongous arms (Felicity thinks that they might be bigger than Ada’s entire body is), a cheerful speck of colour amongst the black and grey backdrop of the prison party, is Ada in her little green dress. “Ada!” Felicity breathes, relief flooding through her as much as it had the other week, even though this time it has only been seconds since she last spotted her daughter.

“I take it that this little minx is yours?” The man holding Ada says as he places the girl back into Felicity’s arms.

“Yes! Thank you, thank you so much. I let go of her for one second and she just ran off!” Felicity cradles Ada close, much to the girl’s exasperation.

“Might I ask what you’re doing here?” The man asks, “I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re not exactly dressed for the party, and most people don’t bring their toddler along with them…”

“I could say the same about you.” Felicity looks over the neat suit he is wearing.

“Fair.” He smiles, “John Diggle, but you can call me Dig or Diggle.” He says the last part to Ada, “I’m Mister Queen’s bodyguard. So I’m not exactly here for the party.”

“Felicity Smoak.” She says, feeling oddly at ease around the other man, “In all honesty, I wasn’t invited to the party.” She admits, without thinking about what a terrible idea it is to admit to the security guy that she was not invited to the billionaire’s party, “I didn’t even know there was a party. Ada here met Oliver a little while ago and she’s grown quite fond of him and wanted to see him once she found out he’d been arrested and… well, I didn’t have it in my heart to say no.”

“I gonna give Prince ‘Liver my present!” Ada announces, grinning at John Diggle.

Diggle visibly melts at the toddler’s toothy grin, something that Felicity can empathise with as it has made her do more than one thing that she did not want to, unable to say no to her daughter. With a quick eyebrow raise at Felicity as he mouths the word _Prince?_ and she shrugs her shoulders in response, he turns back to the girl, “Okay, Miss Ada.” Diggle says, addressing the child, “Let’s find you your Oliver so that you can get home and tucked up in bed, it’s getting late, you know.” Ada looks delighted.

Because he is ridiculously tall, Diggle is able to spot Oliver over the crowd far faster than Felicity could ever have hoped to. His physical massiveness also means that the crowd parts before him, and all that Felicity has to do is follow in his wake, which is much easier than dodging through a crowd of drunk people with a toddler in arm. Oliver seems to be in an argument with somebody. A woman. Neither of them are shouting, but it is obvious that they are having a disagreement. Felicity sees Diggle sigh before he pushes on and interrupts the two, not giving Felicity a chance to protest and leave. She is blushing furiously, embarrassed at the whole situation, particularly of interrupting what looks like an intense discussion between Oliver and a woman he clearly has a past with.

“Mister Queen.” Diggle says formally, earning himself an annoyed look from the billionaire, “I was just about to… _clock out_ …” the emphasis that he puts on the words tells Felicity that there is some meaning that only he and Oliver can understand in them. The seriousness that Oliver displays in response to this only confirms it, “But as I was leaving I bumped into a very nice young lady who was looking for you all by herself, and I thought it would be best to help her find you safely.”

Oliver is annoyed at the interruption, obviously thinking that Diggle has come along to introduce him to some girl looking for a good time and the redness in Felicity’s cheeks only increases. Ada is squirming, not able to see Oliver from her place in Felicity’s arms, hidden behind Diggle, but she can hear his name being said and is growing increasingly excited. The woman by Oliver’s side also looks frustrated with the bodyguard, obviously eager to get back to the discussion she was having with him, but then Diggle steps aside and reveals Felicity, still in the simple dress she wore to work, with her eager daughter in arm.

“Prince ’Liver!” Ada squeals joyously as she spots him, “Prince ’Liver, hi! Are you a real prince? Momma say you a sorta prince.” she is wriggling furiously in an attempt to get to him.

The woman with Oliver looks shocked, “Ollie, who-”

But Oliver does not even register that she is talking, a thousand emotions flitting across his face as he takes in the sight of the two Smoak girls. He settles on surprise, “Felicity.”

Ada, still demanding attention squeals again, “Prince ’Liver! Momma let me down, I wanna hug Prince ‘Liver!”

“Uh…” is all that Felicity can murmur, caught up in the sight of Oliver’s eyes on hers. Oliver, on the other hand, does respond to her daughter.

“Hey, Ada-bug!” he says affectionately and then, giving Felicity a questioning glance, he comes closer, arms outstretched. Felicity realises that he is asking for permission to take Ada from her, and she carefully transfers her child into the accused man’s arms. They too dwarf her child, as massive as they are.

“Hi, ‘Liver. You a real prince?” Ada repeats, a little more shyly now that she is in his arms. Oliver casts his gaze around, noticing at the same time as Felicity that some people have started to take notice of him, the child he is holding and the woman completely inappropriately dressed for the occasion.

“I’m… no I’m not a prince. Why did you think I was a prince.”

“Oh.” Ada deflates with disappointment, “Momma said you a sorta prince but you’s not.”

“Um, I’m sorry?” he says, “But I think there is a member or royalty here…” he grins.

“There is?” Ada gasps, “Where?”

“Right here, silly.” Oliver jostles her in his arms, “Princess Ada.”

“I’m a princess?” Ada gasps, eyes wide.

“Yep.” It appeases Ada and she starts to look at her hands as if they are completely different now that she is a princess.

“You can calls me Ada still.” She informs Oliver, “An’ you, Momma.”

“Thank you, Ada-bug.” He grins.

He takes his attention away from Ada for a moment, “Diggle, thanks for bringing them to me, you should get going now.” Diggle nods at Oliver, smiles at Felicity and affectionately ruffles Ada’s hair, making her giggle and then he exits, “Laurel, we can continue this discussion at some time when I don’t have a party on and a few hundred guests to entertain.” He says it slightly coldly, “Like tomorrow, as we had planned.” The woman – Laurel – sufficiently dismissed, he turns to Felicity, there are questions written across his face, but he asks none of them, “Felicity, come on, let’s find somewhere quieter.”

The trio walk away, Felicity trying to hide behind Oliver so that nobody spots her but the sight of Oliver Queen with a two year old in his arms is drawing a lot of attention. Not least of all from Laurel, the woman they are leaving standing there with a violent glare on her face as she watches them walk away, clearly disgruntled at having her conversation cut short.

She follows him through winding hallways and up staircases, the building so large that she is lost within seconds of their journey and then they arrive at a door and Oliver pushes through. It is a bedroom, a ginormous bed in the centre of the room and a nautical theme throughout. Felicity identifies it as Oliver’s bedroom, and winces at the insensitiveness of the décor in light of what Oliver has been through. Why has he left it there?

Oliver places Ada on the floor, allowing her to explore a little and then goes to sit on a sofa Felicity had not initially noticed near some windows. The room is truly huge. Oliver sighs, but then smiles as he watches Ada looking around with awe, “Please, sit.” He tells Felicity and then as she does, he asks, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I’m so sorry!” Felicity rushes to say, “I had no idea you were having a party and – I mean it was so rude of me to just come here unannounced to begin with, especially as we barely even know one another and you’re my boss’ son – but if I’d known you were having a party, I never would have come!”

“Felicity,” Oliver is supressing a laugh, “It’s okay. It’s… it’s good to see you. And Ada.” At the mention of her name, Ada remembers where she is and why and rushes over to Oliver, clambering on the sofa between the two adults.

“’Liver!” she smiles, “I gots you a present!” Oliver looks to Felicity questioningly.

“I have no idea how,” she tells him, “But somehow Ada found out that you’d been arrested and she wanted to make you feel better.”

Impatient, Ada starts to talk, “I saw you’s in trouble an’ I knows is bad bein’ in trouble so I make you smile.” She shakes the bag in his face, no concept of personal space, “Looks, ‘Liver! Here!”

Baffled, Oliver takes the bag, still looking to Felicity for reassurance, “All I know about this is that she made it in day care and she will not tell me a thing about it, but she has spent the last three days pestering me about letting her give it to you.”

Oliver opens the bag and is greeted with a terribly drawn picture, Felicity cannot decipher it but Ada explains without prompting, “Looks, ‘Liver! I drawed you getting a good boy sticker an’ I drawed me givin’ it to you an’ I drawed Momma too!” she points as she explains, and Felicity can just about spot the figures that Ada is describing. Oliver is beaming, looking more emotional than Felicity has ever seen him.

“You drew me a picture?” he asks, incredulous.

“Mmhmm,” Ada says, not picking up on the mood of the adults around her, “An’ look!” she whines, grabbing Oliver’s free hand to shove it into the bag again. This time, Oliver draws out a card, “Miss Mai helped me make it. Issa card for you to say I believes in you an’ I think you’re a good boy ‘cause you help me find Momma.” Ada says, suddenly shy again.

Felicity is stunned by her daughter’s compassion and belief in the goodness of other people. Ada really is the purest part of her, and she has never been more proud. Oliver seems similarly touched, he is tracing the poorly drawn little figures on his card adoringly, “Thank you so much, Ada.” He whispers, “This really means a lot to me.”

“Okay!” Ada says, overjoyed that Oliver likes her presents. But as is so common with little children, she moves on from the event almost immediately, already sliding from the sofa to the floor so that she can run around Oliver’s room.

“Hey!” Oliver laughs, catching Ada before she can escape, “I think you deserve a hug first, don’t you?”

“Yes, I been a good girl.” Ada says seriously, and then she leaps into Oliver, wrapping herself around his neck, “Thank you for helpin’ me find Momma, ‘Liver.”

“Thank you for cheering me up, Ada.”

He then lets Ada go, and watches as she sprints around his room, totally contented in her own little world, “She really is amazing.” Felicity realises that he is talking to her.

“She is.” Felicity agrees, “But of course I think that, I made her.”

“Well, you did a great job of both making her and, as I have said before, of bringing her up.” Oliver is still not looking at Felicity, his eyes following Ada everywhere.

Felicity is about to respond when his phone begins to ring. Oliver looks up, perturbed by the noise, but he pulls his phone from his pocket and answers it with a finger held up for Felicity to wait. He says nothing, Felicity can hear the buzz of another voice down the line and then there is a knock at the door. It annoys him even more, but with an annoyed groan, he stands up, walking to the door to open it.

“Mister Queen,” comes a voice from the other side, “If you’re entertaining guests upstairs, do you want some drinks sent up?” Oliver does not answer, instead choosing to swing the door open. On the other side is a man. With a gun. He shoots.

Screaming, Felicity dives for Ada, throwing her body over her daughter’s in a desperate attempt to stop her baby from being hurt. She can hear a commotion above her, and yelling. The fray is quick and violent but Felicity’s only concern is crawling with a sobbing Ada still under her body so that she can put the two of them beneath the bed where there is a little more cover.

Once they are under, Felicity curls herself around her daughter, and watches Oliver fighting another man, looking lethal in his every movement. His fighting style is not the untrained thrashing of a man who has never learnt to fight or of a man who learnt everything on a desert island. No, it is the practised flow of a professional. Somebody who spends every single day fighting for his life.

A vigilante.

Another gunshot fires, and the assailant falls to the floor, dead. Felicity sees a third man in the doorway, staring at Oliver before he is obscured by Oliver’s body, crouched down, “Felicity?” he asks, frantic, “Ada?” his hand meets her arm and he slowly drags both she and her daughter from under his bed, eyes wild as he looks them over for any damage, “Are you both okay?” Felicity is petrified by her fear for her daughter, and finds herself unable to move to even comfort the screaming little girl. Fortunately, Oliver picks up on this and he drags her upright and into his arms, cradling both she and Ada tightly.

Felicity realises that he is whispering something into the space between the three of them as he rocks them soothingly back and forth, “You’re okay, you’re safe, I’ve got you. You’re okay, you’re safe, I’ve got you. You’re okay, you’re safe…” over and over again in time to his desperate swaying. It is hard to tell whether he is assuring her or Ada or himself. And for it to be him would be illogical, but Felicity gets the impression that he is the one most traumatised by the attack, and her and Ada being vulnerable.

Ada’s cries have quieted, and she burrows herself in between Oliver and Felicity, trying her best to hide herself from the world as her shaking subsides. Her tiny hand bunches into the fabric of Oliver’s shirt even as she tucks herself into Felicity’s arm, taking comfort from them both. Felicity does not have the energy to think about why her daughter might be taking comfort from Oliver, or why Ada has so naturally started to trust him. It makes no sense, Ada is usually much slower to open up to people.

“Queen.” A voice says, and Oliver is forced to look away from Felicity and Ada and up to the third man. Felicity sees a badge on his hip. Why had a police detective come to the prison themed party of a billionaire?

Oliver’s voice is shaky, “Detective Lance.” He holds eye contact with the other man.

“That was some pretty good fighting you did there.” Lance cannot help but say.

“I got lucky.” Oliver lies, obviously to Felicity but it looks like Lance might buy it, “Adrenaline.”

“Do you have any ideas about why this man would wish to attack you?”

“No, I don’t recognise him.”

“And your companions, here?” Lance looks down at Felicity and Ada, meeting Felicity’s frightened but determined eyes, “Is there any chance that he would be after one of them?”

“I have never seen him before in my life.” Felicity informs him, “I can’t think of anybody who would want to hurt me or Ada.”

“Detective,” Oliver says, voice hard, “I think that, whilst Felicity and I are grateful to you for your assistance tonight, we’d appreciate a few moments alone to check on Ada properly and gather ourselves.”

Felicity gets the impression that Lance and Oliver are not exactly the best of friends, and that the detective is not usually one to do anything for Oliver Queen. Nevertheless, he takes one look at the little huddle on the floor and nods respectfully, clearly seeing the shaking toddler that they are cradling and finding enough compassion in his heart to do what us right for her, “I just came here to let you know that earlier tonight the Vigilante was spotted fighting a German arms dealer in the Glades and bringing him in. You’re officially off the hook,” Felicity can tell that he wants to say more, but he stops himself, “When you’re ready, head down and we’ll remove the ankle monitor and take your statements regarding tonight.”

“Thank you, Detective Lance.” Oliver dismisses, hand tight around Felicity’s waist. Felicity, meanwhile, is blinking in surprise. The vigilante was spotted, far away from the mansion, whilst Oliver was under house arrest and by her side. That makes no sense, not unless she was wrong and she is rarely wrong. Then she remembers witnessing Oliver and Diggle exchange some extremely pointed words and glances, before Diggle vanished from the party altogether. She gets a sneaking suspicion about what has happened tonight, and if it is true, it is not a plan to be sneered at.

Felicity says nothing about her suspicions though, instead she sits in shock as, the second that Lance closes the door behind him, Oliver turns around and takes her neck in one hand and Ada’s entire head in the other so that he can pull the latter into his chest some more and he can tilt up the former’s to give himself easy access to her forehead, where he presses a tender kiss, forgetting himself. The minute that his lips connect with her skin, an undeniable spark shooting from their connection, he comes back into himself and pulls back, focusing on Ada where she sits between them.

“Why he try to hurt us, Daddy?” Ada asks, sniffling and distressed enough that Felicity pays no attention to the fact that her daughter is, once again, referring to Oliver as her father.

“I don’t know, Ada.” Oliver tells her, also too relieved that they are all okay to reprimand her or think twice about the implications, “But he can never try again, Detective Lance stopped him.

“Okay,” Ada acknowledges with the belief in Oliver that only a child can have, “S’your present okay?” she gasps.

Oliver loos up to the sofa and sees the paper and card all still intact, “Yeah, it’s all okay, Ada. It’s safe.” Ada yawns in response.

“Momma, m’sleepy.” She says, little face looking up to Felicity with tear tracks running down her eyes.

“Okay, baby.” Felicity says, “You just go to sleep, it’s all going to be okay.” She promises. It takes Ada only seconds to drift off in their arms, safe and content if a little traumatised. Looking up, Felicity sees that Oliver is gazing down at her resting daughter with as much adoration as she herself has.

**Legacies**

_I’ll spend forever wondering if you knew_

The days after the attack at his home are strange. There are a lot of police around, investigating the incident nonstop and proving themselves extreme inconveniences to Oliver’s mission. There is also a distinct lack of Felicity. After they gave their statements to Lance, Oliver offered Felicity a room to sleep in for the night to recover from the incident. Felicity refused, claiming that she needed to get home and get Ada in her own bed as she had work the next day. She brushed off Oliver’s protests that she should take the day off and then thanked him profusely for being so kind to Ada before vanishing almost as quickly as she had come.

Oliver tells himself that he will take advantage of Felicity’s obvious desire to have absolutely nothing to do with him. Which is what her silent absence is, he is sure. She has seen the dangers that come from being around him, her daughter was under gunfire and was then forced to watch a man die in his attempt to murder Oliver just because they had anything to do with him. Of course Felicity would never want to see him again. And he should respect that wish. It is, after all, in line with his own plans. He swore to stay away from her to keep her safe. The attack has proven that choice more right than anything else ever could have. He is danger, death follows wherever he goes and the very last thing that he would have wanted is for Felicity and Ada to get caught up in that mess. But in the very second that they decided to be involved in his life, they were almost killed.

The problem is that Oliver does not have the strength needed to stay away. With each encounter he has had with Felicity, the draw to her has only grown stronger. Every smile that Ada has sent his way has only made him want to be around her more. He can feel himself falling in love with both of them. In all honesty, he does already love both of them but he cannot let himself think about that. Soulmates are notorious for falling harder and faster than any ordinary couple ever could, and Oliver is experiencing that in combination with their relationship being inextricably tied to an adorable child whom he finds it impossible to not love. And Felicity coming to his house like that… it proves that, even if she does not understand what is happening or why, their bond is already drawing her instinctively closer to him. Which is exactly what he had hoped to avoid.

None of his best intentions are strong enough to stop Oliver from needing to see her again though. He wants to rush over to her home and check up on both of them in person, to ensure that they are doing okay after everything. But Oliver Queen does not know where Felicity Smoak lives, and it would be a gross invasion of privacy for him to track her down. Oliver Queen does, however, know exactly where Felicity Smoak works, and after days of warring between his need to see her and check that she is safe and his will to stay away for her and Ada’s protection, he finds himself back in the IT department, seeking out the bubbly blonde who owns his heart and soul. Said soul’s agony lessening more and more as he reaches the IT department. As he reaches her.

This time, Diggle is in tow, the older man looking at Oliver knowingly when Oliver admits to him who it is they are going to see. Oliver is excusing the visit as Hood related, using his need to get information on a family of bank robbers to explain his need to see Felicity. Both he and Diggle know that he has enough rudimentary technological skills that he could do the research himself, but he tells himself that Felicity is the only one who could dig up the deeply buried stuff and he would rather risk seeing her again than risk missing something important. Neither he nor Diggle believe that, but the bodyguard has enough decorum to stay quiet on the matter, just smirking knowingly at his vigilante charge.

Felicity looks surprised to see him again but beyond that, Oliver struggles to gauge her reaction to him. She focuses on the task at hand, sitting the three of them in a consultation area as, whilst Oliver was able to find room in her shared office the first time that he went to see her, this time her boss is also in there, and he and Diggle take up a lot of space individually, let alone together. If they all tried to fit, not only would they have somebody listening in on their every word, but they would also all be very uncomfortable.

“Are you and Ada okay?” Oliver asks as he watches Felicity at work, “After everything?”

A small smile graces her face, “Yes, thank you Oliver. Ada was a little shaken up but kids just tend to bounce back from things like nothing happened and she’s back to normal now.”

“And you?”

“I’m doing okay. I’ve been a little more protective over Ada, I’ll admit, but on the whole I’m okay.” A pang of guilt stabs at Oliver. It is his fault that Felicity is feeling more anxious over her daughter. His fault that her life has been more difficult. He should never have come back. But as soon as the thought passes through his mind, he banishes it. Coming back and seeing her safe and whole has lifted a huge weight from his chest that he had not really realised the magnitude of until it was gone. He could never regret a second spent in her company.

They get little time to talk this time because the moment that Felicity’s searches do their magic, Oliver’s mind is racing and he needs to get back to his mission to stop the Restons before they can do any more harm. With another terrible lie, he rushes out, Diggle hot on his heels and shaking his head disparagingly.

**Muse of Fire**

_Starts to make its way to me_

Felicity has felt a little guilty for avoiding Oliver since the attack at his party. Ada has been asking about him again, worried about him and anxious to check that he is okay. But Felicity has not known how to face him. Not after seeing him fight. She has never been more sure that he is the vigilante, in spite of the fact that the Hood had been spotted at the same time across town. But since he came, concern apparent, to check on her under the flimsy guise of getting her to research an ‘old friend’ for him, she has been certain that he is and that John Diggle is his accomplice. Especially as Derek Reston, the man she researched for him, later turned out to be the man behind all of the bank robberies that have been happening, and the Hood took him down.

But even though she is desperate to get confirmation of her suspicions, and she battles constantly with some unknown force that seems to be pulling her to him, she has stayed away. She has been trying to come to terms with the fact that the kind, gentle man she knows and who has been so good with Ada also goes out at night and shoots arrows into criminals. Trying to reconcile the man who is so sweet to her (and who she has far too great an emotional attachment to considering their limited interactions) with the man whose hands are bathed in blood. Albeit the blood of men without morals. Men who would do anything for power and money without considering the cost it will have, or how it will affect others.

She has been struggling to decide whether or not she can support his violent campaign. Whether the good that he is doing outweighs the lethal methods that he uses. Whether the danger that his lifestyle brings is worth knowing the man she finds herself unable to stay away from, and who her daughter utterly adores. Because Ada is Felicity’s first priority. If it were just Felicity, she knows that she would have gladly thrown herself into the mystery, she would have far less scruples. But because of Ada, Felicity cannot do that. She needs to keep Ada safe, and sometimes that means keeping herself safe too, and if being around Oliver will do anything to the contrary, then she needs to not be around Oliver. No matter how much that hurts.

But then he came back to her to check on her and it makes everything so much harder. Because she trusts him. Because there is a part of her mind thinking that there could be no safer place than by a billionaire vigilante’s side. A billionaire vigilante who has already proven himself to be very protective of both she and Ada. Not that Oliver necessarily wants Felicity to be around him. He might have grown fond of Ada, but he definitely is not thinking of anything happening with Felicity. The draw that Felicity has to him cannot possibly be mutual, even if it feels like it is every times she meets his eyes or he seeks her out.

None of her days of contemplation matter though when Felicity sees on the news that Oliver’s mother has been attacked right in front of him. Everything that has been holding her back becomes immaterial, every reason to stay away flying from her head when she sees that his family is in trouble. That he was there and almost got attacked himself. She just wants to help.

Without thinking about it, she pulls out her tablet, identifying the attacker on their motorbike and tracking them through the streets. She watches Oliver give chase on the security footage, his movements looking so much like those of a certain vigilante, and he is far too fast, too agile for some idle billionaire. His body is a weapon, the peak of human physicality. Felicity’s mouth goes a little dry. He almost catches the attacker before losing them, and then returning to his mother. But Felicity does not lose them. She follows them as far as the security footage takes them, and gathers all of the intel that she possibly can.

She wastes no time in rushing to the Queen home the minute that she finishes work, Ada freshly picked up from the QC day care. The child is practically jumping for joy when she spots the mansion up ahead, but Felicity hits a snag when the security guy refuses to let her in. She realises that the only reason she got past the night of the party was because they had been expecting unfamiliar people to arrive. She argues with the man, ignoring Ada’s boredom in the back of the car, for longer than she cares to admit. But she needs to get in, she desperately needs to help Oliver find his mother’s attacker.

Eventually, a motorbike comes up alongside her car, the rider dismounting and approaching where she is arguing with security. Helmet removed, Felicity realises it is Oliver, “Oliver.” She sighs, relieved.

“Felicity?”

“I’m sorry to drop by unannounced again, but I need to show you something.”

Oliver nods, “Okay, Rob, calm down. This is Felicity, if she or her daughter ever want to enter, you’re to let them.” Felicity’s surprise at this is significant. He is giving her the ability to enter his family’s property whenever she wants. Which means… maybe he does want her around? Or Ada at least.

Following Oliver to the mansion, she parks much closer than she had the night of the party, and the second that she undoes Ada’s seatbelt, the toddler is running as fast as her tiny legs can take her to throw herself at Oliver with a squeal, “’Liver!”. Oliver’s previously grim expression breaks, a smile peeking through and he lifts Ada into his arms.

“Hi, Ada-bug.” He says affectionately, and Felicity cannot deny that something happens to her heart when she sees her daughter, clad in her stretchy jeans and a Luna Lovegood t-shirt, in his caring arms as he calls her a pet name, “Long time no see.”

“Momma say we come surprise you!” Ada informs him.

“Well, it’s a very welcome surprise.” He tells her, and then looks over at Felicity with a soft smile that almost has her melting into a puddle.

This time, he takes them to a living area, and sets Ada up with some old toys before sitting beside Felicity. “I heard about your mom.” She starts, “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, the doctors say she’ll be fine. She got lucky and her bodyguards did their job. She’s mostly just in shock.” He says, voice grim.

“I saw that you gave chase.” Felicity rushes out, and continues even in the face of Oliver’s tensed jaw, “And that they got away. But… well, no car can outrun a security system, and I managed to track their progress via CCTV and, well, I know where they stopped.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you do that?” he asks, a bit bluntly.

“Because I could, and I thought you’d like to have the information.” Felicity says, matter of fact.

Oliver softens, “I would.” He looks at her after taking the proffered thumb drive, “Thank you, Felicity. But I don’t want you getting into any trouble on my behalf.”

“I chose to do it.” Felicity insists, “It’s no trouble.”

“Just…” Oliver struggles for words, “Just be careful. Please. If not for me, then for Ada.” His words are a wake up, and Felicity looks down at her daughter where she is playing on the floor and looking to Oliver and Felicity every so often for approval.

“Of course.” She replies, “Always.”

“Thank you.” Oliver stands, “As much as I’d love to stick around and spend some time with the two of you, I should probably get this information to the Fou- the correct authorities.” He corrects himself just on time.

“Of course, that’s okay. Ada and I need to be headed home anyway.”

Oliver hesitates, “But… would you like to come for coffee with me? When things are a little calmer? Ada could come too, of course.” He hastens to add.

“Yes, we’d like that.” Felicity finds herself agreeing, everything inside her suddenly aching to be out getting that coffee with him.

**Vendetta**

_passing notes in secrecy_

They get coffee several times a week, usually at some place that Ada can also enjoy like Big Belly Burger, a personal favourite of Felicity’s too. Their coffees also start to turn into meals and are followed by walks to and from the company. They often pass through a park for Ada to play on. Sometimes Oliver sits by Felicity’s side and they just talk, but sometimes Ada demands that one or both of them come and play with her.

Watching Oliver with Ada is beyond compare. Felicity is firmly in the stages of an intense crush on the man (and, if she were to be honest with herself, she would admit that it is something far more than a crush but she is not quite ready for that yet) and seeing him play with her daughter with so much care and attention does things to her. Ada is her entire world, but she is finding herself fantasising about expanding her world to include him, and to include his every interaction with the toddler.

Ada never shuts up about him either. Everything relates back to ‘Liver and, though she has never made reference to her implausible belief that Oliver is Felicity’s soulmate and, subsequently, Ada’s father, the little girl is showing way more interest in Felicity and Oliver’s relationship than any two year old has a right to. Felicity almost regrets the fact that her daughter inherited her brains.

During the spare moments when Ada is not demanding attention or babbling incessantly, whenever she is off playing on her own as she sometimes prefers or she has worn herself out and is sleeping, Oliver and Felicity talk. Oliver admits to her how difficult it has been coming home, and how many challenges there have been that he did not foresee. He tells her about Thea and his mother and Raisa and how hard it has been to open up to them and to learn how to trust again. He even talks about seeing his best friend Tommy and his ex-girlfriend (who had been the woman he had been talking to when Felicity arrived at his party) together and how it is strange. He makes a point of explaining clearly that he is totally over Laurel and that their relationship was a mess and will never happen again, and Felicity tries not to think about how relieved that makes her feel.

They also discuss Ada and how seeing the excitable little girl had been a big moment for Oliver, only minutes after he had pretended to the world that he was the same irresponsible man as before the island. Ada’s easy trust and caring nature touched Oliver, and made him want to do better both for himself and for his family. He is trying.

In turn, Felicity tells Oliver about her mother and the love between Ada and her bubbe. She talks about her job and what it has been like to be a single mother to Ada. The challenges it has presented but also the incredible rewards of being the parent of such a remarkable child. Oliver wants to know everything about Felicity and Ada, and Felicity happily talks to him nonstop about her baby girl, even letting him know the few things about herself that she is comfortable talking about, like her father abandoning her. What neither of them ever bring up is the subject of Ada’s father. Felicity’s feelings on the matter are still so complex and confusing and Oliver seems hesitant to say anything, like he is afraid of what she will say.

They are honest with one another above anything. It works for them. Their friendship flourishes and Felicity cares for him more and more with every day that passes. So much so that it frightens her a little. Ada loves every second of it too, and Felicity never wants to do anything to jeopardise that because Ada trusts and cares about so few people as is, and she has been so receptive of Oliver. Felicity is terrified of doing anything that will make Oliver stop spending time with them. Terrified of ruining things for her daughter.

Which is why it is so difficult for her when her boss, Walter Steele, Oliver’s stepfather, comes to her and asks her to look into some numbers that are off and she uncovers several million dollars sent by Moira Queen from QC to a company that does not exist, Tempest. And then he returns with a notebook he took from Oliver’s mother and he asks her to look into it. Felicity wants to tell Oliver. Desperately. She needs him to know, she hates keeping it from him. But she is scared that if she tells him she is looking into his mother he will hate her and leave her and Ada. She decides to wait, to learn more before going to him. Walter has ordered her to keep quiet anyway, so she will until she actually has something concrete to share with her friend.

**Year’s End**

_Wishing you were at my door_

Oliver decides to hold a Christmas party for his family when he learns that they have not had one since he and his fathers supposed drowning. He invites Felicity, and she declines, telling him that she and Ada are Jewish, so he promptly changes it to a holiday party. He knows that he should not be spending so much time around them. He should definitely not be inviting them to his family parties, but at this point he is powerless to stay away. And not just from Felicity (though whenever he is not around her, he has started to notice that distinct discomfort in his chest that is the bond between the two of them strengthening and protesting at them being apart as they are not fully bonded yet) but also from Ada, who has captured his heart in her tiny hands and he never wants it back.

Who her father is will always be something he will wonder over. He will always have that desire for it to be him. He will always want to know what Felicity has raised her little girl all alone. But he does not need to know, he just wants to be the man who gets to raise her. Even if that is only as her momma’s friend and not as her momma’s soulmate and her adoptive father. He just wants to be there to watch her grow into the incredible young woman he knows that she will one day be. She is already incredible enough as a two year old. She learns so fast too, telling him new facts that she has picked up every single day and blowing his mind. He loves her.

It is too late for him to stay away, he knows. He has grown too close to Felicity now to back away, it would only hurt both of them to sever their bond now that it has grown as strong as it has. But he figures that if he can just keep that last barrier between them, just keep himself from loving her openly and from starting a relationship with her, he will be able to keep his enemies off the scent that she is his soulmate. He will be able to keep her and Ada safer.

Ada is the other reason that he cannot back out now, even for their safety. She has grown attached to him, he can see it in Felicity’s eyes when she worries that one day he will not be there for the little girl. And Oliver does not have it in him to hurt either of them by leaving. He does not have it in him to break Felicity’s hard to earn trust by breaking her daughter’s heart.

Regardless, even after he changes it to a holiday party, Felicity declines to attend, claiming that it would be inappropriate to bring Ada along and she does not want to leave her daughter with a sitter during Hanukkah. Desperate to spend some time with her, Oliver offers to have a private Hanukkah party with her once the holiday party he has planned is over. She is reluctant at first, thinking that he is only doing it to be nice to her, but Oliver makes it very clear that he wants to spend time with her, even if Ada has already gone to bed by the time he gets there. The little girl is thrilled at the plan, especially once they decide that he will sleep on their couch for a couple of nights as Felicity offers to teach him her Hanukkah traditions and Ada is extremely excited about sharing her religion with Oliver.

He is actually more excited for the quiet nights that he will get to spend with his girls (he should definitely not think of them as his girls, but he does) than he is about the busy party he is throwing for his family. Felicity suggests that he cancel the plans and instead sorts a quiet party just for the family to spend time together, but Oliver is sure that what they need is a return to normal, after all of the change they have experienced, so he continues with his plans.

Oliver spends the entire night dreaming of when he can leave and go to the Smoak household. The party is a disaster. His mother and Walter argue. Thea hears it all happening and decides to lash out with some guy Oliver then scares away. The whole thing is a nightmare from start to finish, and it does not help that Oliver is still suffering from getting caught up in that explosion. He is finally ready to just give in and slip away to Felicity’s place, ready to escape the chaos that is his family and Tommy and Laurel and everything else when the Dark Archer, the copycat killer, strikes. He takes hostages.

Wanting nothing more than to just ignore his duties as the Hood, Oliver knows that he has to go and save them. People need him, Felicity will forgive him for being later than expected. Hopefully.

He is a lot later than expected. The Dark Archer is formidable, far more deadly than Oliver could have imagined and highly trained. One moment, he is on the floor, bleeding out and half dead from the battle. The next, he awakens in a hospital bed, his entire body in agony. The only good thing is that his injuries unite his family around his bedside, arguments forgotten as all three of them fawn over him and his injuries where he lays, hurting with every movement, on his hospital bed. Walter gets a call after a short while and has to excuse himself, claiming some work emergency, and then leaves.

Thea and Moira stay with Oliver for a while, making sure that he is comfortable. Oliver is not used to people caring about him so much when he is hurt. In his experience, he just has to pick himself up and move on, no time to waste worrying about almost dying otherwise he could brush up against death once again. It is actually quite nice. Different, unfamiliar, but nice.

A silence has come over them all, more comfortable than anything has been with their family in a long time, and Oliver just lets himself enjoy being able to spend time with his sister and mother, regardless of the circumstances. Their peace is disturbed by the sound of a crying child sniffling on the other side of the door to his hospital room, and a sudden clatter. Moira looks up, annoyed. Thea just assumes that it is somebody passing, and keeps looking at her phone, but Oliver sits up, alert. He knows those cries.

There is a knock on the door, and then it opens, revealing two blondes, one of whom looks supremely frazzled and the other terribly distressed. Nobody has time to react before the distressed little girl, clad in a sweet blue dress with a silver ribbon tied around her waist, is crying out, “’Liver!” her sobbing becoming even more distressed as she strains to get to him.

“Ada-bug.” Oliver exclaims, surprised, “Felicity.”

“’Liver!” Ada sobs, “Momma, lemme go to ‘Liver!”

Felicity looks to Oliver for confirmation, and when he nods, readjusting himself and holding out his arms, she walks over with her daughter, “Now, Ada, remember to be careful. Oliver is hurt, you don’t want to make it worse.”

“I know, Momma!” Ada cries, still upset but more eager to get to Oliver than anything else, “Lemme go!” Felicity places Ada gently on Oliver’s lap, and the girl wastes no time in scrambling up so that she can wrap her arms tightly around Oliver’s neck and hold him in a grasp stronger than somebody so small should be capable of, “’Liver you not come an’ an’ an’ I waked up an’ y-y-you not home.” She cries, her tears soaking Oliver’s white t-shirt, “An’ Momma checks an’ an’ she said you’s in hos-hos-hos’ital an’ we comes to s-see you.”

“I’m okay, Ada.” He reassures her, bending the truth a little as he rocks her from side to side comfortingly, “It was just a little accident on my way to see you. The doctor says I’m going to be alright.”

“You’s okay?” Ada checks, still crying and not quite believing him as she looks at his battered face.

“I will be.” He promises, “I just need to rest for a bit.”

“M’kay.” She throws herself into him again, making Felicity wince at her daughter’s vehemence, but Oliver can only feel the girl’s little arms around him and the warmth in his heart to see his soulmate and her daughter come to him when he is hurt. He notices that his physical pain is lessened by their proximity and cannot work out whether that is because the pain from his stretched out bond has been alleviated or because they give him the hit of serotonin and dopamine that wipes away some of his pain. He definitely knows that the only reason he did not notice them approaching was the mess of pain that obscured the bond.

Their arrival made him forget that he is not alone in the room, and he only remembers the other occupants when his mother clears her throat and he looks up, seeing his sister’s mouth hanging open at the sight of him with a toddler lying across his chest and the child’s mother’s hand in his – something that he does not even remember doing – and his mother’s narrowed eyes, “Excuse me, but would you mind introducing us, Oliver?” she asks with that passive aggressive motherly tone she has perfected.

Ada looks up again, peeking out from Oliver’s chest to see his family, but pressing herself further into him as her shyness rears its head. Felicity has tensed up completely, eyes wide like a deer in the headlights as she comes face to face with Oliver’s mother, a woman she has admitted to him she is petrified of, much to his amusement. And his understanding. His mother is, after all, terrifying. Even to him.

“Mom,” he sits up a little straighter, making sure that both he and Ada are propped up comfortably, “This is Ada, and this is Ada’s momma, Felicity.” Ada beams up at him at being introduced first, which Oliver knew would happen and that is why he did it. Anything to make her smile, especially after making her cry. Felicity looks gratefully at him too.

“And who might they be?” Moira questions.

“They’re my friends.” He says simply, “I met Felicity at the applied sciences opening, little Miss Ada-bug here got a little too excited and she ran off and I helped her find Felicity again.” he tickles Ada as he says it, delighting in her squeals, “Felicity, Ada, this is my mother, Moira and my sister, Thea.”

“Uh… hello.” Felicity squeaks, just staring at his family, lost for words.

Ada on the other hand seems to have found her voice, “Hi!” She pipes up, “I’m Ada Smoak, you ‘Liver’s momma an’ sister?”

“Hi Ada,” Thea smiles, a glint in her eyes that tells Oliver he will be extensively questioned later, “Yes, I am Oliver’s sister, it’s a delight to meet you.”

Ada is about as delighted as Thea is, “You ‘Liver’s sister who goes to school?” she checks, excitement apparent.

Ever since Oliver first told Ada about Thea, the little girl has been begging to meet her. She has a fascination with school and the concept of going to a place where she can learn new things every single day for hours and when she found out that Thea is still in school, her excitement had only increased.

Thea looks confused at the question, but answers, “Yeah… I go to school still. I’m a senior in high school.”

Ada’s mouth forms an adorable tiny ‘o’ as she looks at the older girl as if she is some sort of unicorn, “You get to learn science and ‘puters? What you learn yesterday? What your favourite to learn? You do _math_?” she rushes out.

Thea looks a little overwhelmed, “Uh… yeah, I guess we do science and computers and math a lot. But I like English more.”

“English like readin’?”

“Yeah.” Thea answers warily.

“Woah.” Ada’s little ‘o’ forms again, “Momma teachin’ me to read! I know all my letters now!” she says proudly to Oliver’s sister.

“Wow.” Thea says genuinely, “You do? That’s amazing, you’re so young.”

“Yep.” Ada says, happily leaning back into Oliver’s chest and smiling up at him, “’Liver,” she says seriously, “Your sister’s _cool_.”

Thea laughs, “You’re not wrong, Ada.” Oliver rolls his eyes, but he can feel his heart swelling with his love for Ada.

“Uh,” Felicity finds her voice, “I’m sorry if we intruded, it’s just that Ada tried to stay awake to see you, but then she fell asleep and when I picked her up to take her to bed, she woke up again and got upset that you weren’t there and she wouldn’t sleep after that. And I was a little worried too so I checked and I found out you were here and Ada was just so distressed that I knew there would be no rest unless we came to check on you. I’m sorry, I hope it’s okay that we-”

“Felicity,” Oliver interrupts, intending on telling her that he is more than okay with them coming to see him. He is touched, he loves her even more than before, he is happy.

But his mother gives him no time to say any of that, “I’m sorry, but how did you find out Oliver was here?” she asks, voice cold, “I’ve been careful to ensure that information has not been leaked to the public yet.”

From the fear that fills Felicity, Oliver can tell that she has done some legally ambiguous computer work to identify his whereabouts. Probably hacking hospital records or something, but she is obviously quicker on her feet in inventing plausible lies than he is around her, “I tracked Oliver’s phone.” She says, “I’m good at that, and I knew he wouldn’t mind considering he could have been – and was – in an accident and he might have needed finding still.”

“I don’t mind.” Oliver rushes to say so that his mother cannot get mad at Felicity’s presumption, “Thank you for checking up on me.” Felicity smiles gratefully at him.

“You welcome, ‘Liver.” Ada chimes, looking extremely pleased with herself as she follows along with what parts of the conversation she can. Oliver chuckles and presses a kiss to the girl’s head. In his arms, he can feel her body going lax and tiny yawns overtaking her. She must be exhausted. Oliver looks at Felicity and sees the woman looking at her daughter with concern.

“Miss Ada,” he says, moving her attention away from the patterns on the hospital bed and onto him, “I think it might be past your bedtime.”

Ada scrunches her nose, “Nope.” She insists, “Silly ‘Liver, bedtime not until night time. Is mornin’ now.” She is not wrong, and Oliver cannot help the huff of amusement that escapes him at her impeccable logic.

“Hmm,” he says, disapproving but it is undercut by the grin he is fighting, “But I don’t think you slept much last night, did you young lady?”

“Is okay.” Ada tells him, like he is the child and she is explaining something of utmost importance to him, “I here wi’ you now. Tha’s more ‘portant.” Oliver’s heart melts, and he has no more in him to argue with the child, as much as he might want to in order to help Felicity out. He is powerless against the little girl he loves like a daughter saying that being with him is more important than something else.

“Ada, how about you take a little nap here with Oliver and then we’ll come back tomorrow to see him again?” Felicity bribes, looking at him gratefully for trying with the stubborn child.

“I think that sounds like a great plan,” Thea agrees, spotting what they are trying to do and using the leverage that she has already seen she has over the child to help, “In fact, I think Ollie could do with a nap too, so it might be best for all of us to get some sleep now.”

Oliver’s heart sinks. Thea is right, the doctor will want him to sleep, and he knows that somebody is bound to enter his room soon and send out his family anyway, but he does not want them to go. He wants them with him forever. His soulmate was worried enough about him that she tracked him down illegally and came to see him in spite of her fear of his mother. That is everything to him. And he made Ada cry. He does not want to do that again, even if that means staying up with her for the next week to stop it.

Pretending that she is not yawning, Ada looks around the room suspiciously, clearly having an inkling of what is going on, “You’s all sleep now?” she asks, and is met with three adults nodding their heads seriously at her, “An’ ‘Liver needs sleep for gettin’ better?” again, they all nod, “An’ I come back to see ‘Liver ‘morrow?”

“Promise, baby.” Felicity vows.

“I can’t wait.” Oliver tells the child, “And the sooner we get to sleep, the sooner tomorrow will come so you can come back here.”

“Okay,” Ada decides, “’Liver gotta sleep, Momma, we gots to sleep too.” She tells Felicity, as if it has been her idea all along.

“Good plan, Ada-bug.” Oliver smiles.

“G’night, ‘Liver.” Ada yawns, her little eyes drooping.

“Goodnight, Ada.” He kisses her forehead, and then hands her to Felicity.

‘ _Thank you._ ” Felicity mouths, gathering up her daughter in her arms.

“Okay, Ollie.” Thea says, leaning over to peck him on the cheek, “We’re gonna let you get some rest now, and then I’ll be back soon.” She gives him a look that clearly states that their next meeting will involve some important conversations, “Felicity, Ada, it was nice to meet you.”

Ada fights her sleepiness to wriggle to face Thea, “Wait,” she whimpers, “I see you again too, Tee-ah?” she fumbles over the ‘th’ of Thea’s name and Oliver’s heart melts all over again.

“I’m sure we can work something out.” Thea smiles kindly, “I can’t wait to learn more about you, Miss Ada.”

“M’kay.” Ada mumbles, the energy gone now that she knows she will be able to see Thea again.

Thea breezes from the room, Moira following after kissing Oliver’s cheek goodbye. Oliver watches Felicity’s spine stiffen as Moira walks past her with a cold look towards the Smoaks, and he knows that he has some long and serious conversations with his mother to look forward to as well.

Finally, it is just Oliver and Felicity left in the room. “Thank you for coming.” He says with a soft smile at Felicity, “I’m sorry our Hanukkah party was missed. Hopefully I can make it up to you soon.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She says, voice quiet, “You just focus on getting yourself better.”

“I feel better whenever I’m around the two of you.” He confesses involuntarily, immediately panicking that he has said too much and that she will work out everything. A part of him wants her too. That part wants her to know that they are made for one another, wants her to fight him and wipe his mind of all of the reasons that he should keep her in the dark and away from him so that he can just give in and be with her like his body aches for him to be.

That does not happen. Instead, Felicity blushes, “Oh.” She gulps, “Well, we like being around you too.” Oliver just manages not to sigh in disappointment, focusing instead on the fact that she likes to spend time with him. Trying to remind himself that he should be glad she has not worked everything out.

“I’ll see you later?” he asks, unable to keep the childish hope from his voice.

Felicity bites her lip, sending a primitive response through his body that he barely suppresses, “Yeah, it’s the weekend so we’ll be able to come around once Ada is rested and fed.” She looks fondly at the now sleeping child, and Oliver finds himself doing the same.

“Can’t wait.” He breathes, a hand reaching out to tuck one of Ada’s blonde locks behind her ear as he marvels at how angelic she looks in her sleep.

“Get some rest too, Oliver.” Felicity instructs.

“You too.”

She leaves, each step that she takes making the ache of their bond increase more and more until the now familiar level of constant pain that it causes has settled back into his chest.

Oliver is once again alone, left to bask in the love that he feels for the four women who have just departed his company. How could he ever have expected himself to come home and keep himself completely distant from them all?

Now, it seems like an impossible challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I had the idea for this a while ago, thought it'd make a nice one-shot. Planned it out, figured it'd be 15-30k. Wrote it. Now it's a completed 60k three shot, the next part will be up on Wednesday :D


	2. These are the words I held back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity grow closer and then come to the realisation that Ada is the only smart one of the three of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everybody for reading, commenting and leaving kudos on the last chapter. It means a lot to me <3
> 
> And I just realised this update brings my AO3 total word count over 300,000 so that’s pretty cool.

**Part Two ~ _These are the words I held back_**

**Burned**

_Please don’t be in love with somebody else_

For weeks, Oliver does not once put the hood on. He trains. Of course he trains. At this point, he has no idea how not to train, it is an unchangeable part of his daily routine. But he cannot bring himself to put on the hood. He is enjoying his life too much, he does not want to go back to living in the shadows and spending every night alone, with only Diggle to back him up, fighting for his life.

Without the hood, there is a future for him. Without the hood, he can bond with his sister and support his family in the wake of Walter’s disappearance the night of the Dark Archer’s attack. Without the hood, he can spend more time with Felicity and the child he has involuntarily come to see as his own. He wants Ada to be his. He wants to complete his bond with Felicity and to marry her and to raise that little girl with her. He wants them to give Ada siblings and to be a family.

He wants everything.

And that is the real issue. For the first time in half a decade, Oliver wants things for himself. He wants a life. And, more importantly, he is allowing himself to consider actually allowing himself to go after some of the things that he wants. Some of the things that have nothing to do with his father’s list.

For five years, the only things that he has taken for himself have been brief respites from the agony that has been his life. His relationships with Shado and Slade were his coping mechanisms on the island. Caring for Akio and the Yamashiro family had been the driving force that got him through Hong Kong. His night with Felicity had been the only thing that gave him the strength to walk away and stop Shrieve. Saving Taiana had been his reward for going as dark as he did in the year that he returned to Lian Yu. Being the Vigilante in Russia, learning from Talia had been his way of remembering himself, his true self, as he sunk into the brutal world of the Bratva and Kovar and the vicious persona required to survive that world.

But all of those things, with the possible exception of going to Felicity, have been small, inconsequential things often working to further his main goals. Barring Felicity, nothing has been truly for him. Nothing has been truly good in his life. Only her.

Now though, he can excuse letting his mission to fall by the wayside by arguing that his sister is slipping into a dark place and she needs his help and his father would have wanted him to focus on that instead. He can distract himself from the plight of the Glades and the wider city by focusing all of his energy on his girls. He can pretend like he is not afraid to put on the hood and risk dying at the hands of the Dark Archer, who is still at large, by playing up his injuries. Despite the fact that he full well knows he has suffered worse and just jumped up and carried on fighting only days later in the past.

Felicity is the best distraction of his life. Getting closer to her is the greatest thing that has ever happened to him, and more than once he has seen her looking to him with something like the same longing that he feels for her. And as for Ada, she trusts him implicitly and nothing could be more incredible. He can see her, more than once, almost calling him ‘Daddy’ rather than ‘’Liver’ and every single time makes his heart leap.

Felicity has made him her emergency contact in the city too. Previously, it had been her mother, but since her mother lives miles away in Las Vegas, she came to the conclusion that it would be safer to have somebody nearer. When she shyly asked him if it could be him, Oliver had been ecstatic. She has also made it clear to the day care that he should be able to pick up Ada after she has been caught up with work a couple of times and the little girl has needed picking up. It has given him time to bond with Ada away from Felicity too, and he treasures that time almost as much as he treasures his time with the both of them.

Truthfully, he has spent little time at home. Most of his days are spent training and then retreating home to avoid Diggle’s constant nagging for him to get back in the field. And then retreating to Felicity’s when being at home with a mother who refuses to even acknowledge that their family is going through something as awful as losing Walter and a sister who refuses his every attempt to help her cope with their loss becomes too much. So he is at Felicity’s almost constantly, he barely even sees Tommy any more beyond the time that they spend working in the club together.

The only thing that he has noticed is that Felicity has been talking about the Hood – and, more specifically, the Hood’s absence from the streets – more and more often. And she does not speak of him like the press have been, speculating that the Hood may have died in his altercation with the Dark Archer. No, she just talks about how much the city still needs him, and how she hopes that he will be able to return before long. If Oliver did not know any better, he would be sure that she knows that he is the Hood. But no. Surely she cannot know that. She would have said something to him.

The only good thing about his preoccupation with the two girls he one day hopes to make his family and is mother and sister’s focus on Walter’s disappearance (specifically, on ignoring it in his mother’s case) is that they seem to have forgotten their run in with Felicity and Ada at the hospital. As much as Oliver does want to bring both parts of his family together, and as much as he loves showing off how brilliant his soulmate and her daughter are (especially as Felicity is usually determined to downplay her own genius), he is glad for the reprieve. He wants Felicity and Ada to himself for a while longer, he wants to keep avoiding the press attention that is bound to intrude on their lives as soon as it becomes public knowledge that he spends most of his time with them. And most importantly, he is not yet ready to explain his relationship with them. He is certainly not ready to let anybody know about his bond with Felicity, which has been less and less painful as he has been spending almost all of his time and most of his nights at her place.

So weeks pass in relative quiet and for once, Oliver is actually allowing himself to be happy. Even if guilt pangs ever time the news comes on reporting some new crime in the Glades abandoned by the SCPD. Even as Felicity gives him what would be some heavy hints to put the hood back on if she knew that he was the Hood. None of it pushes him far enough though, nothing is enough to make him want to give up the newfound peace he finally has in exchange for that life of chaos and danger and thrill again.

Then Oliver gets an unexpected call to his Hood phone. From Detective Lance’s phone. But the Lance who calls is not the detective, but the lawyer. He has not talked to Laurel beyond a polite greeting at the holiday party since she took care of his case to prove himself innocent of being the Hood. There is some irony in the first time that he talks to her since that being in the capacity of him being, unbeknownst to her, the vigilante she is talking to.

Laurel begs him to get involved with an arson case that has led to the death of her friend’s brother’s death. Oliver wants to help, he does, he still respects Laurel, even after everything. But as she is talking, he is watching Ada attempt to write her name, her little tongue peeking out from between her lips and a small stain from a wayward felt tip pen marking up her favourite Black Widow pyjamas, as she concentrates on forming the letters correctly. He is listening to the gentle tapping of Felicity’s fingers on a keyboard as she sits, also in pyjamas, on her sofa before him, their bond a gentle and warming humming thing in the air between them. And he cannot find it in himself to agree to put the hood back on, not when he has so much to live for and there are so many ways that he could lose everything if he did.

He has almost resolved to never put the hood on ever again, even though he cannot shake the feeling of unrest that his resolution gives him, even if there is still a part of his mind whispering to him that there is still so much to do to keep the city – to keep his loved ones – safe, when Felicity puts on the news. Ada has gone to sleep, and Oliver is sleeping on the sofa, which has basically become his bed for half of the nights of the week. The arson case that Laurel had called about comes up as the news plays. Felicity, looking at Oliver from the corner of her eye, starts to once again lament the fact that the Hood is no longer around to find the arsonist and help the people suffering. She talks about it for a while, mentioning some statistics on the firefighters who have been dying because of the attacks, and the lack of response from law enforcement.

And then Oliver knows. There is no way that he can just stop being the Hood. Not now. There are people who need him, and the Dark Archer is still at large. Where before that had filled him with fear of being defeated again, now it serves as a reminder of the people left who could be hurt by the Dark Archer’s actions. By the actions of the people on the list. It is a reminder of how easy it would be for Felicity, Ada, even Thea to become those victims. Felicity wants the Hood back, she supports him and believes in the good that he can do. So Oliver will become the Hood again.

**Trust, But Verify**

_somebody waiting on you_

On Thea’s birthday, several hours before her party is due to start, Oliver gets a frantic and apologetic call from Felicity, who is in desperate need of somebody to watch over Ada. Oliver agrees without a moment’s thought. Time with Ada is something that he will never pass up on. But he is needed at home for the preparations for Thea’s party, so he tells Felicity that he will need to take Ada back home with him. He can hear Felicity’s hesitation at the thought of having to come to his house to pick Ada up, especially since she knows that he still has not talked to his mother or Thea about them, but she agrees.

When he picks Ada up, she is as excitable as ever, and even more so when he tells her that she will be seeing Thea again. In the wake of Walter’s disappearance, though Oliver has dodged the questionings from his mother and Thea about Felicity and Ada for a while, it has also meant that Thea and Ada have not had a chance to see one another again and Ada cannot wait. He has tried to explain that Thea has been going through something that has left her unable to see the child, but he can also see the disappointment on her face whenever they talk about it. Oliver realises that it will probably remind his family about their questions for him, but it is worth it to make Ada so happy.

Ada rushes into his house, still marvelling a little at the magnitude of it, and blinking at the sheer size of the entrance hall, which had been filled with people the last time that she saw it. Raisa is there to welcome them back, and Ada takes to her immediately, loving the kind woman. Raisa has always had a way with children. As soon as introductions are complete with Raisa, Ada is sprinting towards the stairs, yelling “Tee-ah!” repeatedly in her cute voice as she goes.

Oliver has to chase after her to avoid a staircase catastrophe, and to avoid losing his soulmate’s child in the endless halls of his gigantic house. He scoops Ada into his arms, spinning her around in a way that makes her giggle even as she begs to be released, and carries the child towards Thea’s bedroom. Ada cannot sit still, squirming around excitedly.

“Here we are.” He announces when they reach Thea’s room.

“Tee-ah!” Ada yells, “Tee-ah!” she knocks on the door, wriggling her way to the floor and rapping rapidly until the door opens.

“Wha-?” Thea says, angry until she spots the tiny ball of energy in a soft red dress and black tights grinning up from the floor, “Ada?”

“Tee-ah!” Ada squeals, throwing herself so vehemently into Thea’s legs that it makes Oliver’s sister wobble a little.

“Hi.” Thea says, bewildered and throwing a confused look at Oliver even as she lifts Ada up to hug her tightly.

“Felicity needed an emergency sitter,” he explains, “So I thought Ada would be a nice distraction from Mom’s manic party planning for the two of us.” For the first time since Walter’s disappearance – actually, for the first time since Thea was last in a room with Ada, just before Walter’s disappearance – Thea smiles a genuine smile. One that reaches her eyes. Not for the first time, Oliver cannot help but marvel at the effect that Ada has on the people she comes into contact with.

“That’s a great plan, Ollie.” Thea swings Ada around as she turns, “Okay, Miss Ada.” She says, bouncing the child a little to make her giggle, “How about we introduce my grumpy big brother here to the wonderful world of _Tangled_?”

“ _Tangled_!” Ada squeals, “I wanna be Wa-pun-zel when I older. I got blondes hairs!”

Oliver, however, groans playfully, “Not _Tangled_ again.” he complains half-heartedly, “Ada-bug, we watched it three times last weekend!”

“Ollie, you’ve seen _Tangled_?” Thea gasps.

“Of course I have, it’s Ada’s favourite Disney Princess movie.” Thea looks at him like she barely recognises him, “What?” he asks defensively, “Don’t you remember when you were little and you’d make me watch _The Little Mermaid_ on repeat? Now I’m going through it all over again for this little mischief bug.” He tickles Ada’s tummy and her eyes light up.

Thea looks between the little girl and Oliver, something in her eyes that Oliver wants to understand but cannot, “Yeah,” she says, almost in a daze, “Yeah, I do remember that.”

Ada barely leaves Thea side the entire afternoon, clinging on to the older girl and asking a million questions at a rapid pace. Thea just about manages to keep up, but Oliver starts to wonder if her crown as reigning Speedy needs to be handed over to the lightning bolt of a child that his soulmate has raised. When Ada is quietly engrossed in the movie, snuggled into Thea’s side with one of her miniscule hands in one of Oliver’s giant ones, Thea starts to drop some heavy hints about him and Felicity and the nature of their relationship. It takes every ounce of interrogation training that he has to keep a straight face and not blush furiously, but the smirk that Thea gives him lets him know that he has not been altogether successful.

When the movie is over and Ada has worn herself out with her constant movement, Oliver gathers her into his arms so that she can nap safely until Felicity arrives, “’Liver,” the little girl mumbles sleepily as he settles her on his chest, “Love you.” Oliver’s heart just stops. She loves him. His little Ada-bug loves him. The daughter of his soulmate loves him. It is _everything_. Everything that he could ever have dreamt of. More.

“Love you too Ada-bug.” He chokes out, not even caring that his baby sister is watching him start to cry just because a child has told him she loves him.

“’Liver,” Ada yawns again.

“Yes, baby girl?” he asks.

“You gonna be my daddy soon?”

Oliver cannot handle the hope in her sleepy voice, it makes him admit to her something that he never would have said aloud otherwise, “I hope so,” he whispers, “I hope so.” And Ada drifts off to sleep, safe in her mother’s soulmate’s arms.

When he cannot excuse his silence as watching Ada sleep any longer, Oliver looks into the knowing eyes of his sister, “Don’t.” he warns, voice still thick with emotion.

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” Thea lies, smirking. Then her face softens, “But you should know Ollie… one day, you’re going to be a fantastic father, and that little girl will be lucky to have you. Just like I was lucky to have you around when I was growing up.”

And Oliver cannot tell whether it is the gentle look Thea is giving him, or the adoration she has when she strokes Ada’s rounded cheek, or the fact that they are talking about the possibility of him one day becoming the father of the child he already sees as his daughter, but in that moment he sees something unmistakable in Thea. She looks exactly like Ada. Which is insane, Ada is Felicity’s mini-me in every way possible, but there is something in the tilt of her nose and the shape of her eyes and the way that she moves that, in that moment, is perfectly mirrored in Thea.

Something in her that makes her look exactly like a miniature, female version of Oliver. Like how he would imagine any biological child of his and Felicity’s to look. In that moment, Ada blend of all of the women he loves, Felicity and Thea and his mother and whatever it is about Ada that makes her purely and uniquely Ada. Oliver cannot shake the image from his mind. He cannot dispel the suspicion. The possibility.

What if… _what if_? What if Felicity had not been unknowingly pregnant the night that he went to her? What if she never mentioned that Ada’s father is her soulmate because she has no idea how to explain the situation to a man she does not know is her soulmate? To a man she possibly is very confused about if she is feeling even so much as an echo of the pull that he feels to her for him but she believes that another man is the one she is destined to be with. What if Ada’s birth in September had been premature and she had indeed been conceived in late January that year? _What if Ada is his_?

But he says nothing. He stays quiet. He waits in a mostly comfortable silence, his mind a storm of thoughts and his sister leaning against his arm with the girl who he prays will be his daughter (whether that be because of her biology or because he and Felicity will one day complete their bond and he will get to adopt her) cradled against him. He barely even says a word to Felicity when she arrives, just quietly telling her about Ada’s activities under his and Thea’s care and whispering a goodbye that conveys far more of his love than he should have allowed. He should not be adding to any confusion she is feeling, he should be pushing them away. But he knows that he cannot do that, not anymore, he would only hurt all of them. The best that he can hope for now is to keep their relationship stagnant, to stop them from getting any closer until it is too late.

He says nothing more though. He just lets them go with his heart clenching painfully as they leave. He is too busy analysing. Analysing the similarities between Thea and Ada as they sat with the sleeping girl. Analysing everything about Ada that cannot be attributed to Felicity. Analysing everything in the child that reminds him of him. Analysing Thea and Felicity in the same room, and seeing both of them in his soulmate’s daughter.

Through all of his analysis, Oliver is unable to shake the thought that has taken root in his mind. In fact, his suspicions have only grown more sure and harder to ignore.

He thinks that he is Ada’s biological father.

**Vertigo**

_Until I see you again_

Oliver has no time to do anything about his revelation for a while because Thea ends up getting spiked at her birthday party and, in her drugged state, she crashes her brand new car into a tree. She winds up in hospital, banged up but okay. Felicity and Ada come to visit with a handmade card from Ada to Thea, but Oliver is too focused on his sister’s recovery and finding who spiked her and how the new drug – Vertigo – works. It leaves him no time to focus on the way that, now he knows how similar Ada is to his family, he cannot stop seeing those similarities every time Ada and Thea interact.

Thea then gets accused of driving under the influence, the prosecution taking the line that she intentionally took the drug and then got into her car. Oliver has to do everything in his power to prove that his baby sister was unaware that she was under the influence when the accident happened.

He succeeds. Thanks in no small part to some aid from Felicity when he paid her a visit at QC whilst coming down from a high with a syringe and a terrible excuse that she just looked a little disappointed in. He succeeds so well, in fact, that the judge in charge of Thea’s case has no choice but to clear her of all charges and refocus on the gate crasher who drugged her. Even though he had a desire to prove a point to Vertigo dealers and users that not even somebody as powerful as Thea Queen could get away with being associated with it. Even though he intended to use the fact that it was Thea’s eighteenth birthday to charge her as an adult.

Oliver privately thinks that they came very close to Thea having gotten into that situation entirely of her own accord. Things have been so tense with her lately, he has been watching her slip down a dark path, powerless to stop her, but he gets the feeling that the afternoon spent with Ada had done some good to Thea. He thinks that maybe Ada unintentionally put Thea on a better path, giving her the strength to rise above all of their family’s issues for the night, and that is what saved his sister.

When all of the chaos is over, Oliver goes straight to Felicity’s place. Stopping off only to tell Thea where he is headed. Thea seems to appreciate him telling her, and asks him to send her love to Ada and Felicity. She also tells him to give Felicity her phone number which fills him with no small amount of apprehension, but he promises to do so.

It is great seeing Ada and Felicity again. He feels guilty for having left it so long with only that brief visit to Felicity at the office. It has only been just over a week, but he has not gone so long without seeing his favourite girls in months and he has missed them. Ada has also missed him, by the looks of it, and she spends hours just calling out “’Liver, ‘Liver, look!”, running around and showing him every tiny thing that he has missed from the last few days. He loves it, but cannot help but notice how quiet Felicity is being, sitting quietly on the sofa and watching them. Normally, she gets involved or at least engages in some way, but all that she is doing is watching him and her daughter playing with a naked expression of longing and what almost seems like mourning.

Oliver’s stomach is unsettled by it, nerves filling him. He struggles to know whether he wants Ada’s bedtime to come sooner or later so that he can sit and question her on it. Finally, Ada does go to sleep, insisting that Oliver be the one to read her a bedtime story since he has not done so in a while. He happily obliges, sending the girl to sleep with a couple of chapters of _Harry Potter_ (because Felicity has wasted no time in starting her daughter’s cultural education) and then walking out to find a grim faced Felicity awaiting him.

“What’s wrong?” He asks with no preamble.

“Oliver, I trust you.” She rushes to say, “I trust you a lot, even though you’re constantly dropping ridiculous lies on me whenever you need tech help. Or just… any science help, really because that syringe thing was definitely not my area of expertise but the excuse was still terrible.” Oliver opens his mouth to protest, even though he knows that what she is saying is true but she stops him, “I’m not an idiot, Oliver. I think you know that, and you have dropped so many insane lies on me, but still I trust you enough that I trust you with my daughter even though I trust _nobody_ with her. Why is that?”

_Because I’m your soulmate._ “I guess I just have one of those faces.” He says, but then realises what a stupid thing to say it is, “Sorry.”

Felicity looks at his face for what feels like hours, a debate visibly going on in her incredible mind, “Oliver, before Walter’s disappearance, he had me working on something for him. And… I wanted to tell you, I did, but I didn’t want to upset you and back then our friendship was still so new that I didn’t want to risk it if there was nothing to risk it over, so I decided to say nothing and wait to come to you only if it became necessary.

“And then Walter went missing on the same night that I found something and I called him about it and… Oliver, I think it’s what got him kidnapped. I think he was kidnapped because he was looking into this and because I was finding stuff on it, and since then I’ve been so scared to say anything because what if somebody finds out and it puts Ada in danger? But now I know I have no other choice. For weeks I’ve been trying to work it out on my own in my spare time but I’ve just hit dead end after dead end and now I know I need to tell somebody and I need you to know.”

Oliver is scared, he wants to rush into Ada’s room and check that she is still safe and sleeping peacefully and not in whatever danger Felicity is talking about. He wants to drag Felicity to his house and lock her up there so that nobody can ever hurt her, “What is it, Felicity?”

“This.” She whispers, and he looks down to see a petrifyingly familiar notebook in her hand. That is his father’s notebook. He takes it, mute, and rifles through. It is blank and undamaged, so unlike his own, but so alike how it had once been when he found it in his dead father’s pocket. Oliver realises that the list is not unique. It is just one copy of many. One copy which Walter somehow had possession of in order to be able to give it to Felicity.

  
“Walter found some numbers that were off in the QC books and he asked me to look into them. I traced the money to a shell corporation under the name Tempest, but the company didn’t exist and the money had been used only once to purchase a warehouse in the Glades. Walter checked it out, but he didn’t tell me what he found, so I looked and… oh, Oliver,” her voice is distressed, and a part of Oliver wants to comfort her but he is frozen as he stares at the seemingly blank pages of the book and thinks about what she is telling him, “It contained the remains of the _Queen’s Gambit_.” Ice runs down Oliver’s spine, “Walter came to me again, after, with this notebook and he asked me to find out everything that I could about it and then he went missing. Oliver, I think this book is why Walter went missing.”

“Wh-where did he get the book?” Oliver asks, emotionless as he can. He cannot handle how he feels about all of this, not right now.

“Oliver,” Felicity is crying now, lip between her teeth and genuine fear emanating from her, “He said it belonged to your mother. And… Tempest… that was your mother too.” All that Oliver can hear is the rushing of the blood in his ears, his heart sinking like lead at her words. His mother has a list too. His mother found the _Gambit_. His mother is involved with the thing that caused Walter’s disappearance.

He stands, mind overwhelmed by all of the information that Felicity has divulged to him. He does not blame her for keeping it from him for months, how could he? She was just scared. For herself, for Ada, for him, for Walter. She just wants to keep them safe, like he does and she was trying to protect him. He can respect that, he can understand it. What he cannot understand is his mother’s role in all of this. Nor can he wrap his head around the fact that there is another list, one in his mother’s possession. How many other copies are there? Is there a chance that Robert was not the one who composed the list? Was he just one of many?

Oliver needs to know. He needs to get to Diggle. To the Foundry.

“I have to go.” He announces, already walking to grab his jacket and call Diggle.

“O-okay.” Felicity sniffles, “Oliver, I’m so sorry.”

He is already half out of the door, mind consumed with the new information and what it will mean for his mission, but he pauses and looks directly at her, “Me too.” He answers, and then he is gone. He is sorry that she ever got dragged into any of this. She was right all that time ago when she told him she did not want to be dragged into his family’s drama. She never should have been, they really are like some Shakespearian mess.

**Betrayal**

_The lingering question kept me up_

After her confession to Oliver regarding Moira’s notebook, Felicity does not hear from Oliver once. It had already been hard enough being away from him during Thea’s trial, that pain in her chest that she gets every time he is gone increasing with each passing day, but this time it is far worse. At least that time they had just come from weeks of almost constantly being in one another’s company. At least they had parted on good terms. At least they messaged one another every single day and Oliver even called a couple of times to talk to her and Ada and update them on everything that was happening.

This time is different. This time they have already gone over a week apart with only a few brief hours in one another’s company to lessen the pain of their separation, and her chest is searing her far more than ever before. This time, they parted after Felicity admitted to lying to him about something potentially world changing for his whole family, with barely a word of goodbye. This time, Oliver does not contact her even once. No messages, no calls, no visits, nothing. And Felicity is far too scared to initiate contact.

At least when she is waiting for him to call her she can pretend that he is just busy with his life and with whatever fallout is coming from her admission. If she contacts him there is a significant chance that he will inform her that he never wants anything to do with her or Ada ever again and he will break both of their hearts and she will not even be able to blame him for it because she is the one who kept the circumstances of Walter’s abduction from him.

But every day now, when she wakes up, her chest bursts in an explosion of agony that no painkiller can dull. She cannot explain it, except that it must be the results of a broken heart, because there is no tangible source for her pain. It is something that she has only experienced once before – after the night that Ada was conceived. And even then it had been nowhere near as bad as it is now. Even when her soulmate abandoned her without even giving her a name, she had not felt as terrible as she does now after just a week without hearing anything from Oliver.

Work becomes difficult, she starts to lose periods of time as the pain overwhelms her and she becomes dizzy and spacey and blacks out. She has just about resolved to go and visit a doctor, knowing that she cannot continue on like this or she could put Ada at risk if she blacks out whilst driving or something when she gets a stack of extra work on her desk and finds herself having to work late. Not for the first time, but she has grown accustomed to having Oliver around to fall back on when the inadequacies in her department lead to her gaining an unexpected heavier workload, and now she is going without that again. So for the first time in months, Felicity is forced to bring Ada up to her office when the day care ends, where the little girl has to sit quietly, bored as she is unable to play or ask questions as Felicity works.

Felicity finally finishes everything up and, apologising to her tired and hungry daughter, she gathers them both up and heads to her car. It is dark in the QC parking lot, night has fallen. She feels guilty because not only has she kept Ada up past her bedtime, but the little girl had to make do with snacks for dinner, but she promises to get Ada something from Big Belly Burger to make up for it. That perks the child up a little, Ada excited at the prospect of fast food and a late night.

Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, Felicity unlocks her car and pulls open the backseat door so that she can strap Ada in. But the backseat is not empty. No, lying there is a leather clad vigilante. Startled, Felicity jumps back with a hand protectively cradling Ada’s head, “Oh my god!” she squeals, “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry, Felicity,” his pained voice says, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I know that.” She snaps, “But what are you doing in my car?”

“I’m sorry. I know I should never have done this with Ada around but I trusted nobody else,” he admits, “Because I know you, and you know me.” Dramatically, he pulls down his hood to reveal his face, evidently expecting some great reaction from her as he is revealed to be Oliver Queen.

**The Odyssey**

_I wonder ‘til I’m wide awake_

“Yes,” She says, frustrated with his behaviour now because Ada is looking around curiously and she did not intend on revealing to her daughter that their friend Oliver is a hooded vigilante any time soon, “I know that. But why are you lying in my car in your suit?” she hisses. Oliver’s eyes slip a little, his body jerking and Felicity pays a little more attention to his situation, “Oh, you’re bleeding out!” Felicity forgets that Ada is in her arms and most definitely understands what bleeding is.

“I don’t need to be told that.” Oliver’s voice is strained, he is barely holding on.

“You need a hospital.”

“No, my father’s steel factory. In the Glades.” Oliver insists.

“But-”

Oliver cuts across her, “Felicity, I need you to promise me that you will take me to my father’s old steel factory in the Glades!”

“Okay.” Left with no other choice, Felicity allows Ada to look around at Oliver as she places the child into her car seat, “Okay, I promise.”

“Thank you.” Oliver manages, “How did you… you knew I was the-” and then he collapses fully into the seat of the car.

Felicity rushes around and into the driver’s seat, starting the car and trying not to panic as she hears Ada saying, “’Liver? ‘Liver? You okay? Momma what wrong with ‘Liver?” fear in her little voice.

“Oliver’s just been a little silly and had an accident, baby.” Felicity tries to calm her distressed child, “He’s going to be okay, don’t worry.” She wishes that she knew what she is saying is true.

“’Liver,” Ada says, “Momma say you gonna be okay.” Felicity’s heart clenches at the absolute belief her daughter has in her words, “Momma, ‘Liver’s sleepin’” Felicity hits the accelerator at Ada’s words, heart pounding. Oliver is unconscious. He had better have known what he was saying when he told her to go to a steel factory of all places.

For the entire journey, Ada keeps babbling at Oliver as he drifts in and out of consciousness, telling him to sleep well and that he will be okay and not to worry. Felicity wants to cry at the compassion her daughter has, but she has not got the time to cry, not when Oliver needs her. She pulls up at the factory, opening the door to let Ada out, feeling her knees give a little when she sees that Ada has lifted one of Oliver’s massive hands into her lap and is stroking it comfortingly in the way that she so often does to her daughter when the child is sick or hurt. Instructing her daughter to stay close, she then tries to pull Oliver out of the back of the car. She really does try, but the man is pure muscle and a deadweight and there is no way that she will ever be able to lift him alone.

In a full panic, Felicity remembers her suspicion that Oliver has an accomplice in his bodyguard, and she banks all of her hopes on him being in the Foundry, waiting for Oliver to return. She locks her car and scoops up Ada, rushing towards the building. There is a door in Oliver’s office with a passcode on it, but that is easy enough to hack through and then she rushes down a set of metal stairs.

“Hello.” She announces to the room, and then there he is. John Diggle. Pointing a gun directly at Felicity and Ada, “Please, he’s really heavy.” Felicity’s words and fear must make Diggle realise what is happening.

“Hi Diggle.” Ada whispers voice trembling even as she tries to stay strong, “’Liver’s not well.” Diggle leaps into action.

“Okay, Felicity, if you put Ada over there she can sit on Oliver’s cot whilst I bring him down.” He tells her.

“Don’t you need any help?”

“You need to stay in here with Ada.” Diggle says instead of answering, and Felicity knows that he is right as she looks at the various deadly weapons littering the room.

  
Waiting for Diggle to return is torture. It takes him over five minutes, and in every second of those minutes, Felicity keeps expecting him to come back and announce that Oliver is dead. She can feel that pain in her body surging again, but with a strange focal point just above her heart where it is searing more than ever before. “Where Diggle an’ ‘Liver.” Ada whispers, sensing the sombre atmosphere in the room.

“They’re coming, baby.” Felicity assures her child, “They’re coming. Here,” she gets out her tablet, “Take this, baby. Momma’s got some more work to do with Mister Diggle and Oliver, so you’re going to have to sit and play on the tablet for a little longer tonight, and if you get tired it’s okay for you to just fall to sleep, I’ll be right here.”

It is a testament to how much Ada understands about how dire the situation is that she does not even complain about them not going to Big Belly. Felicity will make it up to her just as soon as Oliver is no longer on his deathbed.

A commotion sounds from a far corner of the Foundry and Felicity rushes over with one last reassurance to Ada. There is a door in the back, behind which is a large motorbike. Felicity moves the vehicle as Diggle comes through, dragging Oliver with him. She helps the large man to hoist Oliver onto a medical table, heart racing so fast that it feels as if she no longer has distinct beats, just one fluid movement, and pain almost blinding her, but she manages. Every minute or so, she looks over to the cot to check that Ada is okay. The little girl is trying to play on her tablet, the blankets of the cot drawn up over her small body, but her eyes keep darting over to the trio on the table.

Felicity never wanted her daughter to be exposed to anything like this. Not ever, but especially not at two and a half years old.

Diggle is working quickly to peel Oliver’s jacket off, using a knife to cut through the shirt underneath so as to expose the vigilante’s torso. Felicity’s eyes are fixed on the injury bubbling blood on her friend’s chest. It is in the exact same place as the spot on her chest that is searing agony through her body. Exactly the same. It must be a coincidence. Sympathy pains. Something like that. There is no time to dwell on it. Oliver is bleeding out, and the only thing that she has the capacity to focus on is preventing that from happening.

She and Diggle do everything within their limited power in the dirty basement of a steel factory to keep Oliver alive. It takes a little while, but finally they get him stable and the agony Felicity has been fighting to ignore lessens just a little. It is still a lot though, and she is swaying on her feet from some combination of the pain, fear, cortisol in her body and just sheer exhaustion. She stumbles over to the cot where Ada still lies, at this point only pretending to look at the tablet as she waits nervously for news.

Curling herself around her daughter, Felicity tells the child, “Oliver’s going to be okay, baby. Diggle and I got him all fixed up and he just needs to rest a little now.” Tension releases from the child, the girl melting back into her mother with about as much exhaustion as the older woman is feeling, “Go to sleep, baby.” Felicity orders.

“But I wanna be ‘wake when ‘Liver’s ‘wake.”

“But if you don’t sleep now, how will you have the energy to be awake when he is?” Felicity argues.

Ada thinks about it, “’Kay. But I ‘wake when ‘Liver wakes up, okay Momma?” she bargains.

“I promise I’ll wake you up when he’s awake, yes.” And with that, the little girl finally allows herself to fully relax and is asleep within seconds.

Felicity cannot sleep. Not when she is in so much pain. Not when there is so much adrenaline in her system. In spite of her exhaustion, her worry keeps her awake and alert and she just tries to distract herself from Oliver by watching Ada. Diggle speaks up after a while, “This must have all come as quite a surprise to you, huh?” Felicity just levels him with a disparaging look.

“What? Are you saying you weren’t surprised?” his eyebrows raise.

“I’m blonde but I’m not that blonde.” Felicity rolls her eyes, grateful to Diggle for finding an effective way to distract her, “I’ve been pretty sure Oliver is the Hood ever since he was arrested.”

“But then he was cleared.”

“Yes, but I saw him fight that night. No random billionaire can fight like that. That’s when I started to suspect that you were helping him out.”

“I can’t believe Oliver ever thought he had a chance of hiding all of this from you.” Diggle smirks, “He should’ve known.”

“I didn’t mind. Not having confirmation gave me plausible deniability, but it is nice to know for sure now.” Felicity says.

“And what about her?” Diggle gestures to the little girl in Felicity’s arms.

“She’s good at keeping secrets when she knows it’s important.” Felicity says, misreading Diggle’s meaning.

“No, I didn’t mean that. I meant will she be okay after tonight?”

Guilt overwhelms her again for dragging her daughter into this. If there had been any other way, she would have found it but she cannot leave Ada unsupervised and she could not let Oliver die so this is the best that she could do. That thinking does not lessen the guilt. Her voice is small when she tells Diggle, “She’s a tough kid. She bounced back okay from the attack at Oliver’s home, as long as he comes out of this okay she should be fine.”

“Good.” Diggle says genuinely, no disapproval at Felicity’s handling of having her daughter in this mess whatsoever.

In the moment that they finish talking, Felicity’s chest bursts in an explosion of pain that almost has her collapsing to the ground a split second before the electrocardiogram hooked up to Oliver’s chest goes wild, the beeping indicating that his heart has stopped. Felicity thinks that her heart might stop at the very same time. It feels like a dead lump in her chest the entire time that Oliver lies there on the table, his own heart not beating. Her chest is hollow and useless and she is drained of her strength with each passing moment, part of her feels like it has died within her. Like it has calcified inside her body and will never again move. The still, stony ache within her hurts more than the fiery pain that has been scorching her for hours – for days – ever could but she somehow still manages to rewire the defibrillator and Diggle resuscitates him.

Her heart starts again.

It hurts infinitely more than before it stopped, but Felicity welcomes the pain. It makes her feel alive. It lets her know that _he_ is alive. Somehow.

Once Oliver is legally alive again, his heart pumping healthily according to the cardiograph on the monitor and her hand occasionally pressing against his pulse points, Felicity resets the wires attached to him. She peels the padding from the defibrillator from his chest, exposing his scars and tattoos to her eyes again. Ignoring the way that her mouth goes dry as she properly takes in his expanses of muscle for the first time, she moves to the pad on the lower left portion of his abdomen, peeling it away and exposing marks on his skin on his left hip. At first, she thinks that it is just another tattoo, but on closer inspection she realises that it is a soul mark.

They are rare, so rare and unique that the science on them, the studies of bonds shared between them are still mostly inconclusive. Especially as most soulmates are rather secretive about the intimate bond that they share. Felicity has only met a handful of other marked people before. Only one of whom shared her mark and she was never even given the chance to really learn what their bond would mean for them. What they could be together. She shakes that thought away. Her soulmate only ever wanted one thing from her and he did not want it for long. That is the only possible explanation, otherwise why would he stay away? Why would he have left her? Beyond the fact that she is apparently supremely easy to leave.

Curiosity winning out, Felicity allows herself to inspect the mark on Oliver’s hip, especially interested as it is in the same place as her own, something that is even more rare. Unable to help her curiosity, she pushes his trousers down his hip a little to expose the majority of it and then freezes, staring at the ones and zeros and the arrow between them.

Gasping, she withdraws her hand from his body like it has burnt her, panic rising. She is overwhelmed, unable to process what she has just seen, unable to understand what is happening and her mind spirals because of it.

Because the mark permanently staining Oliver’s skin is a perfect match for her own.

He is her soulmate.

_Felicity is awakened by a gentle breeze chilling the exposed skin of her arms. Initially, she is mildly annoyed at the sensation, not having expected to be roused from her sleep, but then the chill seeps into her mind, awakening it fully. She did not leave any windows open before she went to bed. There is no way that a breeze should be able to get to her bed, not unless her window has been broken open. The thought makes her eyes snap open, causing for her to jump from her bed with an urgency she can never remember having when getting out of bed ever before._

_Bleary eyes focus on the window in her room, finding it open but not broken. Nor is it empty. There is a man sitting precariously on her windowsill, eyes fixed upon her and body tense. There is a hood drawn up over his face and she cannot make out any of his features, she can only tell that he is a large man. Felicity scans the room for something to use against him, some way of defending herself but all that she spots is her laptop. Regretting her actions already and thinking a silent apology at her beloved device, She raises it against him, “What are you doing here?” she asks, voice surprisingly steady, “What do you want?”_

_With more grace than a man his side has any right to possess, he slides from the windowsill and into her room, arms raised in the universal sign for surrender, “I’m not here to hurt you.” She can hear the undertones of a smooth, deep voice, but it is hidden by some sort of modulator that he is using._

_“So why are you disguising your voice then?” she questions._

_“You can’t know who I am,” he answers, mournful, “I wish you could, but I can’t give you any clues and risk you finding out. It’s too dangerous.”_

_“They’re sounding a lot like the words of somebody with plans to hurt me, buddy. You’d better start explaining yourself and quick.” She warns, not lowering her laptop even though she has absolutely no idea what she would do with it if he were to attack._

_Something tells her that he is smiling, “I’m sorry.” He says, half sincere and half amused and then, faster than she can react to, he is rushing forwards and capturing her wrists in his, prising the laptop from her hands and laying it gently on her bedside table, all the while holding her in a grip that is both gentle and firm._

_“Let me go!” she yells._

_“It’s okay.” He cajoles, not doing a good job of calming her, “It’s okay.” And then, with both of her wrists in one hand, he reaches down with the other and exposes his lower left abdomen. Felicity is fighting too hard to see what he is doing at first, but then she sees it._

_The fight leaves her._

_“That’s my mark.” She whispers, head snapping up from his hip to his head, “You have my mark.”_

_“Yes.” He confirms, hands loosening around her wrists as he lets them go._

_“You’re my soulmate.” She says, not knowing whether to rejoice or weep, “Which, of course, you already know. Otherwise why else would you come to my house and break into my bedroom and sit watching me like some creep? Unless you are a creep, are you a creep? No, you’re not, if you were just some creep you wouldn’t’ve made your first move showing me the mark. You must’ve known I’m your soulmate, which doesn’t mean that you’re not a creep it just means that you came here to see your soulmate not just some random woman and now you’re having to listen to me babble. Which will end. In three… two… one.”_

_His expression is unreadable but Felicity somehow knows that his heart is a swirling storm of amusement and conflict and possibly even… affection? She can feel it._

_“I’m your soulmate.” He confirms, “And as far as I’m aware, I’m not a creep. I definitely don’t have a habit of breaking into houses and watching people sleep from their bedroom windows. I just… I needed to see you.” He sighs, “I should never have come here. It will only put you in more danger.”_

_“You keep saying that but I don’t see how I’d be in danger and you haven’t bothered to explain it to me.”_

_“Please just trust me, Felicity. I can’t tell you, it’s not safe. Please, I just want to keep you safe. I should have left you alone but I couldn’t stay away.”_

_His use of her name jolts some sense into her, “How did you find me? How do you know my name?”_

_“I saw you. Earlier today.” He explains, “And your shirt rode up and I saw my mark. I let you go then, but now I have to go back to a place I really never want to go to again, and I couldn’t stop myself from coming to meet you before I have to go. I tracked your journey home and found you here.”_

_“That’s… impressive.” Felicity admits, “It’s also a major breach of privacy.”_

_“I know. I’m sorry. I just… I needed to see you. I needed to see you one more time, when I could take the time to really take you in. Just once before I have to go back.”_

_Like he cannot help himself, his hand tentatively reaches out. Seeing where he is going with it, Felicity places her hand over his and guides him until he is touching her. His fingers slip beneath the loose fabric of her pyjama shirt (which is actually an old MIT t-shirt), pushing it up to expose her mark. Reverently, his hand moves over the bared mark, engulfing it entirely in his palm. Both of them gasp, the sensation of his fingers on that spot beyond anything Felicity has ever experienced before._

_“_ Felicity _.” He breathes, and even though all that she can see of his face is a dusting of stubble on a shadowy, strong jaw, she can feel his eyes boring into her with an intensity that she has never before felt. Felicity cannot help but reciprocate the gesture, exposing the most defined stomach that she has ever seen until she can once again look upon the mark covering her soulmate’s hip and place her own hand onto it. The intensity between them increases tenfold, the entire world falling away until all that Felicity knows is his hand on her and her hand on him._

_  
Her free arm raises, trailing her hand from the bumpy planes of his abs and over a broad, hard chest until she can grip at his trapezius muscle. As she tilts her head up to him, still unable to see anything of his face, the hand covering her mark twists until he is cupping her entire hip in the palm of his hand, and his other hand is cradling her neck._

_He is the shadow and she is the light, looking directly into his darkness as they crash together. His lips are soft and plush, she can feel that much, and the sensation of them on hers is beyond compare. Felicity has never been so turned on before, never had an experience as erotic as just kissing him is in her life and she loses herself to the sensation._

_Neither of them make any conscious choice to move, but Felicity’s knees are suddenly bumping up against her bed and the two of them topple onto the rumpled sheets. His body is solid above hers, pushing her into the soft mattress and pressing every inch of them together. His lips never leave hers, but the hand that had been around her neck moves to prop him up above her to avoid crushing her and the one on her hip shifts to slide her pyjama top even higher up her body. Getting the message, Felicity reluctantly lets go of his shoulder and mark and raises her arms above her head, nodding to him to encourage him. She is wearing nothing under the top, and the movement exposes her entire upper body to his hungry gaze._

_After drinking her in for a minute, he groans in her ear, “Felicity.” She wants to be able to say his name back to him, but she cannot. In short order, her pyjama bottoms have joined her top on the floor, leaving her entirely naked beneath him. He is panting as he worships her, not wasting a single second of their time together._

_“Felicity,” he whispers, mouthing at her throat, “Do you want this?”_

_“Yes.” She whines, “I want you.”_

_Her words make his entire body shudder on top of her, “Even though I can’t tell you who I am? Even though I can’t show you my face?”_

_She nods, “I want you.” She repeats, because she does. He is her soulmate and she does not care that she does not know him, though she would prefer to. Right now, she wants him. She wants to feel him. She gets the impression that this is both a hello and a goodbye, that she will not be able to see him for a while after this and that sense of impending loss, so soon after finding him, makes her want to waste no time. They have so little of it available to them, they cannot afford to hesitate._

_“If we’re going to do this, I need to make sure you can’t see me.” He tells her seriously, “I need to cover your eyes. Are you okay with that?”_

_It does give her a little pause, hurt that he is so insistent on her not seeing him, but she wants him no less because of it, “Okay.” She whispers. And then he is tying something around her eyes and telling her that they can stop whenever she is uncomfortable and she can hear the clinking of a belt unbuckling and the rustle of clothes being removed before his skin, bare and scarred, is pressed back against hers. Everything feels heightened, the darkness covering her eyes forces her to focus on her senses beyond sight and she becomes aware of every miniscule shift of his body against hers, inside hers. It is nothing short of magical._

_Afterwards, she sleeps long into the morning, exhausted from the exertions of the night. When she awakes he is gone, the only thing left to prove that he had ever been there the scrap of fabric he had used to cover her eyes and, as she would discover seven weeks later, their daughter in her womb._

With an anguished cry, Felicity falls backwards, only not crumpling to the floor thanks to Diggle’s rapid reflexes. She goes mute, unable to answer Diggle’s worried queries with anything other than dazed movements of her head. He directs her over to a chair – the one by the computers – fussing over her as he tries to find the source of her collapse, but can see nothing. Distantly, she feels bad for worrying him, but she has not got the presence of mind to think about that. Not when she is looking at a mark identical to hers – identical to _his_ , Ada’s father’s – branded onto the skin of the man she has been falling in love with for the last few months.

Everything suddenly makes complete sense and also none at all. She finally understands why Ada had believed him to be her father, why she had so easily trusted him, why her heart feels like it is tearing in two every time he is not around, why her chest has been searing with pain ever since she found him shot and bleeding in her car, she finally understands it all. Most importantly, she knows why she has fallen head over heels in love with him over the last few months even though she has been unable to bring herself to be with anybody ever since her soulmate showed up and gave her Ada.

But she cannot make sense of anything else. Why has he not said anything? Surely he must remember her, must remember their night together. _He_ saw _her_ face. He knew her name. Surely he must have realised that Ada is his daughter. Why would he let himself get close to them both, and become basically a surrogate father to Ada without mentioning to them that he is _actually_ her father? Why would he start… whatever it is that he has with Felicity without telling her when he knows that they have matching marks and are meant to be together? It makes no sense.

“Felicity?” Diggle is saying, shaking her a little to try and break her from her stupor, “Felicity?”

“Huh?” Felicity blinks, trying to focus on him but it is impossible for her to tear her eyes from Oliver. Her _soulmate_.

“Felicity, what’s happening?” he trails off, following her eye line to Oliver’s exposed abdomen. His eyes widen in recognition, “Felicity…” he starts, tentative, “Do… do you have a soul mark?”

Felicity starts to shiver, unable to contain her reaction anymore. “Felicity, is there any chance that your soul mark looks like that?” Diggle says, taking her shivering as confirmation and pointing at the binary marking on Oliver’s hip. Tears start to fall, and then she is being engulfed by Diggle’s massive arms, her shaking body surrounded by his, “It’s okay.” He reassures her, “It’s okay. Felicity, does he know? Has he seen your mark?” her shaking only increases, her head moving jerkily to answer his question.

She can almost feel the fury pouring from Diggle when she nods, his arms tightening around her and increasing the security of his hold. Felicity has no idea what he is thinking, but she knows what is on her mind. On her mind is the only possible explanation for why Oliver would get involved in her life without telling her what they are to one another. He does not want her. Or… he does, but just not romantically. He wants her around, but not like _that_. Not like she wants him, both as the man who has taken over her heart and as the man who worshipped her body three years ago. He wants to be in his daughter’s life but not if that means having her get too attached to him.

They do not move for a long time, Diggle just offering his unwavering support to her as her heart, her world shatters around her. In his arms she feels safe, like the warm protective embrace of a big brother and she cannot bring herself to move again, not when she feels like the only thing keeping her from totally breaking apart is his arms around her. Diggle seems to know this, and he makes no attempt to move either, not until Oliver’s monitor goes off again, signifying that his heart has once again stopped. This time, it is even more terrifying for Felicity. He _cannot_ die now. Not now that she knows. Not now that he owes her so many explanations. He was supposed to have been on an island for five years and now she learns that not only had he not been, but he had also been back to Starling. In her bedroom, no less. It was supposed to be impossible for Oliver to be Ada’s father. Now it is impossible for him to _not_ be. There are very few things that Felicity cannot wrap her head around, but that is one of them. It is too much, too fast. There are too many emotions tied up in it all.

She fixes the issue – realising that Oliver’s heart is fine and it is the wiring that has gone wrong, but when she is done and she looks up to see Diggle’s concern and his clear desire to comfort her again, she finds herself unable to accept that comfort for any longer. She needs to move. She needs to _do_ something. She needs nobody’s pity. She needs to get her head together before Oliver Queen wakes up so that she has her full faculties about her when she confronts him about every facet of their relationship over the last four months.

Fixing the electrocardiogram actually helps her take her mind off of the life changing revelation, so she decides to keep fixing things. It has always been one of her most effective escapes from the real world. She heads over to Oliver’s computer system to see what can be done and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that it is a complete mess. The code looks decades old, it is an embarrassment and she feels bad for both Oliver and the computers to have to work with a system like that. But it gives her a project. A big one, since writing code for an entirely new system will actually be faster than fixing the pre-existing mess that Oliver is currently working with. The distraction is a desperately needed one, and she is grateful for that.

She is just putting the finishing touches to the improved system when she hears a sound behind her. Oliver is stirring. She forgets about how angry and confused she is with him, just needing to see that he is okay, and rushes to his side. Diggle looms ominously behind her and it gives her some reassurance to know that the man will have her back even though they do not know one another all that well and he is actually Oliver’s bodyguard.

Watching Oliver awaken is eye opening. She has no idea how she missed it before, Ada’s every expression is identical to Oliver’s. He looks just like Ada does when she wakes up. His eyes flutter open, pupils contracting and adjusting to the lighting in the Foundry and then he smiles up at his soulmate and teammate, “Guess I didn’t die again.” he jokes, “Cool.”

He grins at them and then notices that neither of them are grinning back. Just watching him. “What’s wrong?” he asks, immediately on alert, angling himself so that his body is between hers and the entrance. Felicity forces herself to not pay attention to the swell of sympathy and love that his protectiveness causes in her. What she cannot stop herself from doing is looking back down at his mark at his words. He sees and then notices that he is shirtless and that his mark is still on full display, trousers low on his hips.

His pupils contract rapidly, panic overtaking him, “Felicity,” he starts, looking back up at her from his mark, “Felicity-”

“Don’t, Oliver.” She chokes, suddenly not ready for the conversation, “I don’t know how you could possibly explain this. Have you known right from the start?”

“I recognised you, yes.” He admits, “I knew who you were to me.”

“And Ada? How long have you known you have a daughter? Since you saw me? Did you put that together right away too?” Felicity is vaguely aware of the surprise on Diggle’s face as he tries to calculate how it could be possible for Ada to be Oliver’s.

“No!” Oliver rushes to say, “No, I convinced myself that there’s no way she could me mine. We were together in January, Felicity! She was born in September, and the way you talked… you never even mentioned having a soulmate, much less the possibility of your soulmate being Ada’s father. So I just thought that maybe you’d had somebody in your life before I showed up and you’d gotten pregnant and they were out of your life for whatever reason by the time I came and you’d been unknowingly pregnant when we were… that night. I just… she was born too early, I convinced myself there was no way.”

“Ada was premature.” Felicity informs him, voice cleared of emotion, “She should have been born in November but she came in September. She was in the NICU for weeks after because she was so small and wasn’t getting enough oxygen. I wasn’t able to hold her for a week without it being with the gloves that reached into the incubator.” Hearing about the difficulty of his daughter’s first few weeks of life make Oliver look physically pained.

“I had my suspicions.” He admits, “There were just some things that were so familiar about her. When I had my accident – sorry,” he corrects when he sees the anger on Felicity’s face, “When I was defeated by the Dark Archer and you came to the hospital, I saw something of Thea in her but I convinced myself I was being ridiculous. But then when I had her on Thea’s birthday there were just too many similarities for me to deny and I became almost certain that she is my daughter. And… she is.” He says it reverently, his eyes moving to the corner of the room where their daughter is still sound asleep, “ _My daughter_.” He whispers it to himself intimately, adoringly.

Felicity cannot handle it, “The SCPD got a sample of your blood from QC but I hacked in and ordered it be destroyed. I also took the liberty of updating your system because it looked like it was from the eighties and not the good part of the eighties like Madonna and… legwarmers.” She says, babbling to distract herself from the heavy atmosphere and the way that her entire life is changing right before her eyes.

Hope sparks in Oliver, “Does that mean you’re staying.”

Felicity hesitates, “If you’d asked me that question three hours ago before I saw… _that_ ,” She gestures at his soul mark, “I probably would’ve said yes. I’ve been debating for months about letting you in Ada’s life when yours is so dangerous, but I had pretty much decided it would be okay. But… now…” she inhales sharply, “I don’t know.” Oliver looks devastated, “I need time to think, Oliver.”

“Please let me explain.” He whispers, “Please.” He looks like a man about to lose everything.

“I won’t keep her from you.” Felicity reassures him, “We will talk so that we can sort it all out… custody and everything. But right now, I just need a little time to cool off.”

“Can I at least…?” he looks longingly at Ada.

Felicity nods, “I promised her we’d wake her up when you woke up.”

“Thank you.”

With a good deal of pain that echoes in Felicity’s own body, Oliver hoists himself from the bloody table, making his way over to the sleeping girl, “Hey Ada-bug.” He whispers, “Hey baby girl.”

“’Liver?” she groggily says, looking up at him.

“Hey, kiddo.” He murmurs, “I’m okay, it’s okay.”

“’Liver!” she wakes up fully and jumps into his arms, “You okay.”

“I’m okay.” He repeats, holding her like she is the most precious thing in the world. Felicity watches the two of them, feeling like everything she has ever wanted is right there, within reach, but that there is something stopping her from stretching out and taking it.

For years, she has dreamt of her soulmate coming back to her and explaining everything perfectly and stepping into his role as Ada’s father. But she never imagined it like this. She never imagined it hurting so much. “Ada-bug,” Oliver says softly, his eyes gratefully on Felicity’s, “I think your momma needs some sleep.”

“Momma not sleep?” Ada looks contemplatively at Felicity.

“No, I think you need to take her home and make sure she gets some rest.” Oliver prompts, knowing that the best way to get Ada to comply with something is to make her believe it is for somebody else. He really does know them both so well, and it hurts like nothing else to know that he has been right there all along, making a place for himself in their lives and for them in his heart, but unwilling to take it any further.

“What ‘bout you?”

“I need to sleep on a proper bed,” Oliver lies, knowing full well as Felicity does that he will be sleeping on the Foundry cot and that the only reason he is not going back with them is to respect her request for time, “So I’m going to go back to my home and then I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Ada looks worried, “You say that las’ time an’ I not see you in _forever_.”

Guiltily, Oliver kisses her forehead, “I know. I’m sorry about that, if I could’ve come to see you, I would’ve. I promise.” It reminds Felicity about the last few weeks spent without him. Thinking that he hated her after keeping the list from him. It would seem that both of them have been hiding significant secrets from one another. Felicity cannot handle thinking about it all.

“I see you soon?” Ada checks.

Oliver looks to Felicity, “We’ll see him soon, Ada.” Felicity tells the little girl to both her soulmate’s and her daughter’s relief, “But we need to go home and sleep now.”

“Okay.” Ada agrees reluctantly, “Loves you ‘Liver, see you soon.” She hugs Oliver one last time and Felicity can see that Ada’s words and actions mean absolutely everything to him. Ada then hops down and takes Felicity’s hand, “C’mon, Momma. Time for your sleep.”

“Felicity.” Oliver’s hand encircles her forearm, stopping her from leaving. She winces at the movement and Oliver notices, “Are you hurt?” he asks.

“I’m fine.” She says, but her chest is throbbing and she cannot help but shift to try and alleviate the pain. Oliver’s face turns stony.

“You’re hurt.” He states, “Can I see, please?” Felicity contemplates it, but has no time to offer an answer because Oliver evidently thinks that making sure she is uninjured is more important than waiting for a response. He tugs back her cardigan a little, exposing the skin over her shoulder and upper chest. All three of the adults in the room gasp. Right above her heart, in the exact place where she has been hurting, the exact place where Oliver is sporting a sewn up bullet wound, her skin is raised and red.

Oliver looks between their injuries, “Is that… is this because…?” his hand moves to hover over his own mottled, bloody flesh.

“I think so.”

“I’m so sorry.” He says like a broken man, “I never meant… I never wanted…”

“I know.” She answer, not unkindly, “There’s nothing to be done for it, I’ll be fine, I need to go.”

Oliver senses something in her tone, “Okay. Please, just… wait for me to explain. Please don’t assume anything, that’s all I ask.” She nods slowly and then he presses a kiss to her forehead and bends to press another to a curious but sleepy Ada before letting them go.

**Dodger**

_don’t you let it go_

It takes two days for her to calm down enough to call Oliver and allow him to come and visit her. Those three days are agony. Ada frets over Oliver the whole time, begging hysterically for them to go to see him as she keeps mentioning his injuries. As she keeps screaming that he needs them. And the agony in her chest is like nothing she has ever felt before. Now that she is aware that he is her soulmate, now that she can identify their bond as what it is, it is like the pull to Oliver is tugging harder than ever before. It becomes almost physically impossible to stay away.

Though they know that Ada is desperate to see him, and that keeping her away is only causing her more distress, they agree that their talk will go better if she is not around, and Oliver convinces Thea to watch over their daughter for a couple of hours so that they can have the peace that they need to figure out where to go from here.

Felicity has tried to honour Oliver’s request and stop herself from assuming too much, but she already had a fair number of assumptions accumulated by the time he said that to her and it is hard not to lean into those thoughts. It is hard not to let her mind race through theories and settle on the worst ones. She is still incredibly angry at Oliver, she feels like their entire relationship is somehow based on a lie, like nothing between them has been genuine and he has only wanted to be around her because he felt like he had to. She cannot shake the thought.

But she also cannot shake the pain of being away from him. It is only getting worse and worse, her body demanding that she be in his presence and her mind crying out for him. And between that and Ada’s worries, she knows that she cannot put the moment off any longer. Even if she is terrified that he is about to confirm all of her worst fears, she knows that living in denial will do her no good. She has to let it happen. For herself and for her daughter – Oliver’s daughter. She hates it when Ada is sad or worried and she knows that she cannot in good conscience let it go on for any longer.

She is a ball of nerves when Oliver knocks on her door, a formality that he has not engaged in since the holidays. Opening the door, she sees that he is about as nervous as she is, his fingers rubbing together in that nervous tick that he sometimes gets. But the second that they are in one another’s presence again, she can feel the tension that has been pulling in her chest, trying to get her back to him, relax. Just seeing him dissipates a lot of her anxieties, making her feel more secure in herself, more ready for what is to come. She can see that she is having the same effect on him.

“Felicity.” He breathes, and it takes her back to their night together. It reminds her of the voice that whispered passionate prose into her ears, too close and low for the modulator to do much about it.

“Oliver.” She lets him in.

He has barely sat down when he begins to talk, “I’m so sorry.” He tells her, “Please, just let me talk first, I need to explain.” She lets him, “I’m so sorry.” He repeats, “I have so much to explain to you and none of it excuses my lying to you for months but… I guess I’ll start at the beginning.

“When the _Gambit_ went down, I was one of three survivors on a lifeboat. Me, my father and the ship’s captain all made it. But after a while we ran out of food and water and my father made the unilateral decision that if any of us were to survive, it would be me. He shot the captain and then he told me to survive and shot himself in the head.” Felicity gasps, Oliver’s pain at the memory bleeding through to her. She wants to comfort him but she can tell that he needs to say his piece before she gets involved.

“I then washed up on an island called Lian Yu and I was not the only person on the island. There were mercenaries there, and a man named Yao Fei and an Australian secret services agent stranded there, Slade Wilson. It took me two years to get off the island, and not for lack of trying. A lot happened but I’m not ready to go into that just yet, but in the end I was the only one who survived long enough to be there when A.R.G.U.S. came and airlifted me from the water.

“But A.R.G.U.S. were not there to be my saviours. Waller, the director, wanted to use me and my acquired skills and convenient legal death and she did. And then the mission brought us to Starling and she told me that if anybody saw my face, she would kill them. Nobody could know I was alive. She needed me there because I could break into QC and get some files, and that’s what I was doing the first night that I saw you. You came up there, all bright smiles and adorable babbles and you were so beautiful. You babbled at a photo of me and I smiled for the first time in months.”

“Oh, I remember that!” Felicity cannot help herself exclaiming, “I can’t believe you saw that… I was calling you cute even though you had terrible hair in that photo.”

Felicity cannot escape the sheer adoration in the way that Oliver is looking at her, “You did.” He says, voice thick with meaning, “And it was _everything_.” Slowly, he reaches out to take her hand in his, she lets him.

“And then you bent over and it made your shirt ride up and I saw this.” His finger traces over where her mark is delicately, veneration in the movement, “Your mark, exactly like mine. And I knew it then, I felt the pull to you in my chest for the first time. I wanted nothing more than to go to you then, but I knew what would happen if I did and I didn’t want to risk it. But once the mission was done, I let fantasy take me. I imagined going home to my family and using our wealth and power and influence to protect us all from Waller’s wrath and then I thought about coming to you and having a life with you.

“I got as far as going home and then I watched a message from my father and… well, it reminded me of a lot of things, but the important part is that the fantasy broke and I knew I couldn’t go home then. But I also couldn’t leave without seeing you again, without knowing when or if I would see you next. I couldn’t stop myself from giving in to the pull towards you and, well, you know what happened then.” Felicity blushes, only just reconciling that night with the fact that it had been with _Oliver_. Only just realising all of the ways in which she has touched and been touched by the man sat before her. And to think, she has been fantasising about him touching her like that for months without even realising that he _already has_.

Oliver sighs, memory in the sound, “When I came home, my intention was to stay far away from everyone. To distance myself from my family. To keep myself from seeking you out. I knew it would be too dangerous, too much of a distraction and I could not afford to risk you or my mission like that. It was, in reality, not quite so simple. It was too good seeing Thea and my mother and Raisa again. Thea was too persistent, my need to have my family back too strong. And I excused it, I told myself that they are in danger anyway and there’s no getting around that, so as long as I kept them away from my mission and kept myself away from you, things would be okay.

“And then Ada bumped into me at that ceremony. And she was all bright smiles and adorable babbles and she felt _so familiar_ and she was so cute and she saw my mark and started calling me daddy and then… there you were. Our bond came back to life within me, and I tried, Felicity. I tried so hard to keep you and Ada safe and away from me but things just kept happening. Walter recommended you to help me and I was in your office before I realised who you were. Ada was her wonderful self and wanted to cheer me up and you came to my house. We got attacked and I couldn’t breathe until I came to check you were safe. But by then, it was too late.

“There was no keeping myself from you. I convinced myself that Ada was not mine and that if I could just stop us from going the whole way and completing our bond, I’d have enough distance between us to keep you safe but I’d be close enough to protect you both. I told myself that one day, when my mission was over, I’d tell you and if you were still single, we could have a future together.” Regret mars his features, “I told myself a lot of things, and I know a lot of them were stupid, but for as much of it as I regret, for as much as I regret lying to you, I cannot regret trying to keep the two of you safe. That is something that I will never apologise for.”

Neither of them speak, Oliver just taking in Felicity like it is his last chance and Felicity deep in thought, “You should’ve told me.” She says after a while.

“I know.” He whispers, head looking down at his hands.

“You’re an idiot, Oliver Queen.” He closes his eyes, pained, “You should’ve told me and you should’ve realised that Ada is your daughter.”

“I know.” He repeats, “I was just so reluctant to. I didn’t want to be disappointed… I didn’t want to be a disappointment.” Something in her loosens. Something else clicks into place and she understands. Her anger lessens and her hurt grows to encompass the pain of knowing how little value Oliver places on himself. How determined he is to ruin his own life without even knowing it.

“Ada loves you.” She reminds him, not a shadow of a doubt in her mind.

“I love her.” She knows that it is true. She knows that he loves their daughter with everything that he has in him.

Felicity exhales, finally knowing where to go next, “We’ll work up to telling her, and then once she knows we’ll discuss custody and living arrangements.”

“Really?” hope returns to his voice, “We can tell her?”

“Yes.”

He bites his lip, unsure, “And… what about you?” his voice is barely audible, like he does not dare ask any louder for fear that it will ruin something, “What about us?”

“Well I think that if we just make sure we’re honest about things from now on, and we talk to one another when we might be about to do something stupid in the name of protecting the other like withholding our soulmate status or hiding a notebook, we should be able to maintain our relationship.”

“Just maintain it?” he looks crestfallen, eyes squeezing shut.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t want to… I don’t know… be more? Have more together? You don’t want to complete our bond?” he sounds heartbroken.

“You… do?” she squeaks.

His eyes fly open, “Of course I do!” he is fierce, vehement in his response, “Felicity, I want nothing more than to be with you. Properly. For the three of us to be a family.”

Felicity gapes at him, lost for words.

“Felicity?”

“But I thought… I thought maybe part of why you never said anything was because you realised you didn’t want that kind of relationship with me… that you just wanted us to be platonic.”

It is Oliver’s turn to gape, “How could you _possibly_ think that? Have you seen you? Have you met you? How could I ever possibly _not_ want you in every way that you would let me have you? Our night together… the night that we made Ada, that was the greatest night of my life, Felicity. Even with everything else that was happening, it was still the best. And knowing that we made our daughter then? It means _everything_.”

“You… want me?” she questions, still uncertain.

“Felicity Smoak, I want everything that you are willing to have with me. I love you. I love you so much, I just want you to _let_ me love you.”

“You love me?” she checks, unable to comprehend it.

“With my whole being. You’re my soulmate, I was made to love you.” He asserts, “And that’s not to say that our bond is forcing me to love you. It’s that my love for you makes our bond all the stronger. You are… you’re perfect for me, Felicity.”

Another fear lessens within her and she cannot contain herself, not in the face of his declaration, “I love you too.” She breathes and Oliver lights up.

“You do?” she nods. And then, ever so cautiously, Oliver leans forwards into her space, his eyes intense on hers and his intent clear. Felicity closes the distance between them. Unlike their first kiss, this one is chaste and gentle, loving more than passionate. They both pour months of suppressed love into it, reassuring one another of their bond. Felicity feels that thing in her chest swelling happily, a warm glow from inside of her, matching Oliver’s.

He pulls back, “What does this mean for us?” he asks, eagerly.

“I think… we can take it one step at a time.”

“I’d like that.” He smiles, but grows a little more serious, “What about my crusade?”

Felicity feels sure of her response, “I’ll help you. To an extent. But I want to focus on finding Walter. He was nice to me.”

“I can work with that.”

They get to work straight away, Oliver actually going off-list and targeting a jewel thief. They plan it all out carefully, Oliver even going so far as to buy her a dress for the event where they plan to apprehend the Dodger, and then they head there together. They are taking things slowly, just slipping back into their routine with Ada to begin with, albeit with some more handholding and some private, sweet kisses hello and goodbye added to it. Ada is delighted to have Oliver back, and he is working hard to fix the damage done by his disappearances, eager to get to the point where he and Felicity both feel it is appropriate to tell Ada that he is her father.

Things are good and they are actually happy. Oliver tells Felicity that having her by his side at the gala makes it infinitely more bearable to be in a room filled with people whose names he has seen on the list. Who he knows are hurting the less fortunate in the city. They avoid the press and the main crowds, happy to be there together but not quite ready for the media storm that is sure to come when their relationship becomes known to the wider world.

It is not a proper date, they have that planned for later, when they are not also on a mission, but it is still amazing to be out together, working to make the city a better place. Ada is with Thea, excited to spend an evening with the young woman and Raisa for a change and they make the most of a chance to be out, just the two of them for once. Right up until Felicity ends up with a bomb collar around her neck and Oliver just about loses his mind until she is safe again.

He refuses to leave her side, following her home and asking her to let him sleep on her sofa so that he can know she is safe. She can see the blood and bruising on his knuckles and knows that he must have hurt the Dodger. How badly, she does not know but she knows that he did. She knows that he made the Dodger pay for hurting her. She can feel it, the simmering anger that pulsated when she had the collar on her neck. But she can also feel his overwhelming fear. He came so close to having everything that he has been afraid of come true. So close to not being able to protect her and it is destroying him. He can focus on nothing but that near miss now. Nothing but making sure that she is totally safe. He will not let go of her hand, he will not let her out of his sight.

Felicity can feel that he is hurting, having come so close to losing her, and all that she can think of is what would have happened if she had died. She never would have gone on her first date with Oliver. She never would have seen Ada’s face when she finds out Oliver is her father. She never would have watched their relationship as father and daughter blossom. She never would have been able to sleep with Oliver again, this time with the ability to look upon his face.

She finds herself unable to let him go either, the dangers of his life and actions clearer to her than they have ever been before. He could die at any time and so could she. Life is too short.

“Oliver,” she says, “Oliver, come to bed with me.” His haunted eyes fix on hers.

“Really?” he croaks out.

“Oliver, come to bed with me.” She reiterates.

The two of them head to her room, both slowly undressing, unable to keep their eyes from one another. They lie down next to one another, Oliver in just his underwear and Felicity in a large shirt and her panties, and Oliver’s arms encircle her protectively, drawing into her body as if he can keep her safe like that. Without discussing it, Felicity’s mouth finds his and they kiss, the bond swelling between them with their combined emotions. It grows desperate, passionate, both of them clutching at one another like it is their last chance to be together, like they do not have their entire future ahead of them. Before she can overthink it, Felicity swings her leg over Oliver’s hip, straddling him and she pulls the shirt from her body.

Looking down at him, she fully appreciates her soulmate for the first time, relishing in the fact that she can look upon him this time. He happily lets her, but before long he grows frustrated at not being able to touch her, to kiss her and feel her and he pulls her back down to him, both of them ready to rediscover one another for the first time since Ada’s conception.

**Dead to Rights**

_I’m wonderstruck, dancing around all alone_

Since Tommy found out about Oliver being the Hood, things have been strained. His best friend will not even stay in a room with him, much less talk to him. It hurts a lot to know that somebody who has known and cared for him for so long can turn on him so easily, but at the same time he cannot blame Tommy. He understands why his friend hates him for being the Hood, why he would have misgivings about it all. The worst part is that he cannot even blame Tommy for feeling the way that he so clearly does.

It makes being at Verdant very awkward, because Tommy is still doing his job but also trying his hardest to never be within a ten metre radius of Oliver. The only respite that the two of them have is that Oliver has never been all that involved in the day to day management of Verdant. It was always meant to be a cover, not a career, though Oliver knows that his friend cares about it deeply. Tommy has really come into his own as the manager there, something that Oliver should have expected but had not for some reason. Perhaps because he and Tommy have not really taken the time to learn about the men that the last five years have forced them to become since his return.

Part of the problem is probably that Oliver and Tommy have not exactly been behaving like best friends of late. Diggle is closer to that as far as any outsider looking at Oliver’s interactions would be concerned. It has been hard for them both. Tommy avoids Oliver because he feels awkward about being with Laurel, even though Oliver has made it more than clear that he is fully over Laurel and thinks that as long as she makes Tommy happy he should stay with her. Oliver avoids Tommy because his friend is a reminder of his past and the way that his five years away have forced him to grow have forced him to grow away from the boy who was Tommy Merlyn’s best friend and he has no idea about how to tell Tommy that. He has no idea how to work to forming a new relationship as the men that they are now.

The majority of Oliver’s time is spent with Diggle, Thea, Felicity and Ada. Because at least those parts of his life are actually going well. He and Diggle have started to form a relationship beyond the Hood. Oliver mostly accredits this to Felicity forcing them to actually bond and Ada making Diggle soften his attitude by being her usual perfect self, but whatever the cause, it is nice to have a friend in Diggle. And it is nice to see Diggle’s relationships with both Felicity and Ada develop. He can tell that Felicity is starting to see the third member of their vigilante squad as a brotherly figure and Diggle also happens to be fantastic with Ada, who is fascinated by the large man and demands to be picked up and swung around whenever he is near.

Oliver’s relationship with Thea has also never been better. Since the drugging incident, she has cleaned up her act and is actually focusing on school, something that Felicity has been more than willing to help her with. She and Oliver are actually bonding, Oliver finally able to be honest with her about one aspect of his life: his love for Ada and Felicity. Many nights have found Oliver teaching Ada to cook in the kitchen as Felicity tutors Thea through her schoolwork and the little girl strains to try and listen in on the things that Felicity is saying, eager to learn anything about school that she can.

And Thea loves Ada. Which is convenient because it means that he and Felicity have a willing babysitter whenever they want to go on a date. Which is all the time. Their dating life is actually going fantastically, more so than Oliver could ever have dreamt. He spends most of his nights at Felicity’s place too, and actually gets to sleep in her bed, with her in his arms. It is transcendent. He just has to be careful to go to bed long after Ada is asleep and get up before she wakes up because they have still been building up to telling her that he is her father and that they are soulmates and together. Finally.

But the wait is finally over, and they have decided to tell her tonight. And that is enough to make him forget about all of his issues with the boy he was raised with. He can just focus on how happy he is, how much he loves his soulmate. How much he loves his daughter.

They decide to do it at home, where Ada is most comfortable and they will have the most privacy. They are not quite ready to risk the press getting wind of anything and leaking the news across the city. Even though he knows that Ada loves him, and that she was actually the first one to realise that he is her father and has been wanting him to officially acknowledge it ever since, he is incredibly nervous. Explaining why they have been denying it for so long and are only now letting them all be a family is something that he has lost sleep worrying over and is the main reason why they have delayed telling her.

But she needs to know. _He_ needs her to know. Their family and their future, the way that all three of their lives will be shaped from this moment onwards depends on her knowing. Through all of the nerves and apprehension, he is so excited to see where it all goes. To see her reaction.

  
They start the night like any regular night. Ada does some studying with Felicity and then they eat and sit down to watch a movie. They put on _The Lion King_ , which is one of Ada’s favourites and always puts her in a good mood, even if she does cry every time they watch it. Oliver does not watch the movie at all. He has seen it a dozen times with his little girl anyway. Instead, he watches Ada watching it. They are all sat together, Felicity tucked under his arm and leaning into him and Ada perched on their laps, her back against Oliver’s chest and her legs over Felicity’s. She seeks out comfort from him through all of the sad parts. Her face lights up when Nala finds Simba. She has seen the movie a million times but she is no less enthralled by it and Oliver loves her for that. He loves her capacity to love things. It reminds him of Felicity all the time.

It also reminds him of how much she has grown in the few short months that he has known her and how much he missed in his years away.

When the movie ends, none of them move for a while, Ada is babbling away about all of her favourite parts and Oliver is watching contentedly as Felicity strokes their daughter’s hair. Without speaking, he and Felicity lock eyes and he knows that it is time. Felicity shifts so that she is sitting more upright, no longer leaning on Oliver and she takes Ada with her so that the child is sat on her crossed legs, facing Oliver.

In their discussions about how to break the news to Ada, they both agreed that Oliver should tell her, she will want to hear it from him. “Ada-bug,” Oliver says, taking quick advantage of a short lull in her babble, “I have something to tell you.” His voice is soft but serious, and Ada picks up on it.

Her little eyebrows draw together in a frown, both curiosity and worry filling her eyes, “’Kay. Wha’s happenin’?”

“Do you remember the day that we first met?” Oliver asks, delighting in the way that her eyes light up at the reminder, “And do you remember when my shirt lifted and you saw my soul mark?” Ada nods warily and Oliver can tell that this topic is one that has never left her mind since that day but that she thinks the conversation is some sort of trap after Felicity has spent the last few months telling her that she is not allowed to talk about the possibility of Oliver being her father.

“It’s okay,” Oliver assures her, “You’re allowed to talk about it now, we’re giving you permission.”

Ada looks up at Felicity, who smiles reassuringly and that gives the little girl the confidence that she needs, “I ‘member.” She says, confidence growing, “It gots bin’ry codes on it an’ arrow shootin’ through.” She pauses, still not quite sure that the conversation is not a trap designed to get her into trouble, but then continues in a shy whisper, “Is the same as Momma’s mark.”

“Yes.” Oliver answers her, and he can see the visible relief and excitement that his acknowledgement gives her, “It is, but Momma didn’t know that and I wasn’t telling some truths – which is very naughty of me,” he hastens to add, wanting to impress on his daughter that keeping secrets only ever works out badly, “And because I kept secrets, Momma thought it was impossible for me to have the same mark as her because she already met the person with the same mark and she didn’t think it could be me. Do you know when she met that person?” he prompts, knowing that Ada will take it best if she works it all out herself.

“Yes!” she says, eager but still shy and curled into Felicity for support, “Momma met her soulmate the night she starts makin’ me. So she knows that my daddy is her soulmate but he gots to go far away an’ she never sawed his face or learns his name.”

“Well, Ada-bug,” Oliver tells her, hushed to match her tone, “On the night your momma started making you, she thought I was trapped on an island, because that’s what I told people. But I wasn’t. I was here, with my face covered up, because I saw your momma and I saw her mark and I wanted to meet her.” He tries to keep it as truthful as possible, “But then I had to go away again because there were some bad people trying to hurt me and I didn’t want them to hurt your momma. It took me a little while to get back home though, and then I met you. But I didn’t know your daddy was your momma’s soulmate and she didn’t know I was her soulmate and neither of us told the other. But then Momma saw my mark and we told the truth. Do you understand?”

Ada is unreadable, something that Oliver has never experienced with her before. She is usually exuberant with her emotions, “You’s my daddy?” she says quietly.

“Yeah,” Oliver says, feeling his emotions starting to overwhelm him, “Yeah, baby, I’m your daddy.” Ada says nothing, just sitting staring at him for what feels like an eternity but within what is actually seconds, she is looking up to Felicity, who smiles down at her daughter, eyes swimming with unshed tears. That look at her mother is enough for Ada and then she wastes no more time.

“Daddy!” she squeals, throwing herself at Oliver. He catches her, drawing her in and she clings tightly to him, practically holding her own weight up with her arms around as much of his shoulders as they can reach and her little legs around his ribs, “You’s my daddy?” she checks one last time, even though she has known the answer for longer than any of them.

Oliver is fully crying when he responds, “I’m your daddy Ada-bug.” He tries to keep his voice steady, but his ears are still ringing from hearing his daughter call him Daddy for the first time since he has learnt the truth.

“Hi, Daddy.” Ada sighs happily in his arms, “I loves you.” Oliver cannot contain the sob, and he lifts his face from Ada’s blonde hair to see Felicity crying just as much as he is.

He moves one hand from Ada to pull Felicity into their hug, their daughter shifting so that she is nestled safely between the two of them and smiling, “I _tolds_ you ‘Liver’s my daddy, Momma.” Ada says, exasperated. It makes all of them laugh, even through their tears.

“That you did, baby girl.” Felicity ruffles Ada’s hair, leaning into Oliver.

“Hey Daddy,” Ada looks up at Oliver, nose wrinkling a little in thought and his heart skips another beat. He loves her so much.

“Yeah baby?”

“Since you’s called ‘Liver Queen an’ I’m a princess does that mean you’s a Queen? Like Queen Elsa?”

Felicity snorts, interrupting before Oliver can try to explain, “Yeah, baby. Daddy’s a Queen, he’s the Queen of Starling.”

Ada’s little face lights up and he does not have the heart to contradict his soulmate, “So you’s not a prince ‘cause you’s a Queen?”

“Yeah, Ada.” He shoots a little glare to Felicity, “That’s why.”

“An’ I a princess ‘cause I your baby?”

“That is how it works, Bug.”

“An’ Momma’s a Queen too?” Something funny happens to Oliver at the thought of Felicity being a Queen. In name, not in title. Lost in that thought, he can only muster up the brain power to nod mutely at his daughter.

Happy with his responses, Ada bites her lip and turns to look at Felicity, “Is Queen Daddy gonna live with us always now, Queen Momma?” she asks, “’Cause tha’s what soulmates do. They lives together an’ they be a family an’ I want Queen Daddy to be here always.” Oliver’s heart is just about ready to burst out of his chest.

Felicity looks up at Oliver, they have discussed this, “If you want me here, Ada-bug, I will be here.” Oliver promises his daughter, not taking his eyes from Felicity “But Momma and I have been talking, and we were thinking that it might be nice for all three of us to go out and buy a proper house with a yard for you to play in and lots of space so that people can come visit us.”

“Space for me to have a siblin’ too?” Ada asks innocently, “’Cause I wants a siblin’.”

Oliver almost chokes, he and Felicity have only just got their heads around being soulmates and Ada’s parents. Their discussions about the future have covered how to merge their lives and the possibility of buying a house. Having more kids has not even come close to coming up yet.

  
And yet… Oliver cannot deny that he wants it. He wants a bigger family with Felicity. He wants to see her pregnancy and be there for the birth of his child and to have a baby, he will always regret missing that with Ada. And they do make pretty perfect kids together, Ada is incredible. It would be nice to have a couple of other troublemakers running around.

He clears his throat, looking down at Ada, “I don’t think you’ll be getting any siblings just yet, Ada-bug.” And then he looks back at the incredible woman he is lucky enough to have as a soulmate, the woman with whom he has finally completed his bond, “But maybe… maybe one day?” he frames it as a question, making it plain to his soulmate that he would be more than willing to have more kids one day.

“One day.” Felicity confirms, making Oliver’s heart soar and his mind fill with images of a dozen little Felicitys running around, causing mayhem and calling him Daddy.

**The Huntress Returns**

_and now I’m pacing back and forth_

Living with his girls is a dream. Ada is perfect to him. Sure, she causes trouble and refuses to eat her greens and throws tantrum sometimes, but Oliver relishes even those moments. Even when it takes him two weeks to break her out of the habit of calling him Queen Oliver and she calls him it in front of Diggle, proudly proclaiming, “Misser Diggles, Queen ‘Liver my daddy an’ I his princess.” And Diggle guffaws and proceeds to thoroughly egg Ada on in calling him Queen Daddy by referring to Oliver as Queen Oliver exclusively, even when Ada is not around. And whilst he does not appreciate Diggle calling him Queen Oliver, he loves Ada so much that he actually kind of misses her calling him Queen Daddy after he gets her to stop doing it in public. He kind of liked having a nickname that brought her so much joy.

He is learning more about his child, falling in love with her more each day and he will never take that for granted. Especially not when living with them also means that he gets to have Felicity next to him every time he goes to bed and whenever he wakes up. That is nothing short of a miracle.

Thea knows that he has moved out, but she supports it, knowing that Oliver needs to be with his girlfriend and her daughter, knowing how happy they make him. She herself is mostly living at her boyfriend’s place, something that Oliver has mixed feelings about but cannot begrudge her since her boyfriend is also her soulmate and life at home with their mother is a little too much for his sister to deal with alone. Moira is still acting like nothing is wrong, and Oliver is secretly glad to be away from it, though he does try to go home a couple of afternoons a week when Felicity is at work and Ada at day care in order to maintain the illusion that he still lives there. It works, Oliver was rarely ever at home anyway before he officially moved out.

Things are going so well that Oliver lets down his guard a little. He should have been expecting something to happen because it always does when things are going too well, but he has been so caught up in Felicity and their daughter and his ever improving relationship with Thea that all of the bad stuff has fallen by the wayside. And then Helena Bertinelli shows up in his life again. She is just as vindictive as ever, and still furious at Oliver for trying to stop her months ago when he trained her and tried to set her on the right path and thought that they could be friends and partners in the field.

When he and Diggle are talking to her, Felicity walks in with Ada, saying that she would like an excuse to hack the FBI in response to Helena. The little girl has no idea how dangerous Helena is and she runs up to Oliver with a grin, “Daddy!” she shouts, throwing herself at his leg. Heart pounding, more terrified than he has ever been in his life, Oliver hoists her up and into his arms, trying to angle her away from Helena, “Who dis?” Ada asks, still managing to get a look at Helena, “Hi, I Ada Smoak!”

“Felicity,” Oliver rumbles, “Take Ada and go home, I’ll be back later.” Felicity takes in his stance and tone and must feel how tense he is across their bond because she realises that the woman in the Foundry is dangerous.

“Come on, Ada.” She says, not arguing for her right to stay and Oliver knows that it is only because she knows that their daughter’s safety is their number one priority, “We’re not staying with Daddy today, just stopping by to say hello.” She pulls a reluctant Ada from Oliver’s arms and hastily retreats.

He can hear Ada’s perplexed voice as they go, “But you say I sit with you and help Daddy fight bad guys today.”

“Daddy, huh?” Helena smirks, “Either kids are growing up faster than I remember or you were keeping secrets from me.”

“Stay away from them.” Oliver growls, “They have nothing to do with this.”

“Whatever you say.” She responds airily.

Helena does not heed his warning. The next thing that Oliver knows, he is getting a call from Felicity and, as she is on the phone to him, she goes suddenly silent. There is a crash, muffled sounds of a struggle coming from the microphone and Oliver is paralysed by fear as he listens. The sound of his daughter crying meets his ears and he starts back to life, jumping on his motorbike without pause and racing to QC where he knows Felicity is working late with Ada in the office. When he arrives, he finds his soulmate and girlfriend bound on the floor, her panda flats sticking out from behind a desk.

“Felicity!” he yells, panicked.

“Oliver!” she sobs back, “Oliver, she took her! She took her!”

Oliver can barely breathe as he cuts her from the ties, “What do you mean?” he asks, praying that he is wrong but knowing that he is not, “Tell me everything.”

“She came and Ada was sat with me waiting to go home and she took Ada and threatened her and made me hack the FBI to find her father and I thought she’d give me Ada back once I did it but she _didn’t_.” Felicity cries, “She took her – she took our baby girl with her, Oliver. She said she was _leverage_.”

Red overtakes Oliver, his fury unparalleled. He has been angry before, but never like this. Nothing compares to when somebody he once trusted as an ally is holding his two year old daughter hostage to manipulate him. Nothing could ever fill him with more fury.

  
“We’ll get her back, Felicity.” He vows, “We’ll get her back no matter what.”

He goes to Helena, barely able to contain himself and makes a deal to help her kill her father in exchange for Ada’s safe return. He has no idea where his baby is, but Felicity is tracking Helena’s every move digitally and Diggle is poised to find Ada manually even as he makes the deal. They find where their girl is being kept, and start their plan. Oliver goes with Helena to kill her father, and Felicity coordinates as Diggle goes after Ada.

Ada’s kidnapping has Diggle almost at furious as it has Oliver. Diggle truly loves the tiny toddler and is incredibly protective over both her and Felicity. So somebody going after the Smoaks? It has riled Diggle up in a way that Oliver has never before witnessed. The only thing that has ever come close is when they have discussed Floyd Lawton, his brother’s killer. And it is that anger, that love that Diggle has for Oliver’s girls, that lets Oliver know that he can trust the man to save his daughter and keep her from harm. It is that, and only that, which stops him from going himself, Helena be damned.

He sticks by Helena’s side, even when he sees his ex from years ago, Detective Hall, coming after them both. He is not willing to risk anything when it comes to Ada’s safety, but all the while he is advancing on Frank Bertinelli, his attention is on the com in his ear, and Diggle’s progress in saving Ada.

  
“ _I’m in._ ” Diggle says, voice hushes, “ _No sign of any guards_.” Oliver takes down an FBI agent, making sure to leave the man with no permanent injuries.

“ _Can you see Ada_?” Felicity’s trembling voice sounds, making Oliver’s heart ache.

This is exactly why he wanted to keep away from them, to protect them from his enemies and the dangers of their world. What if it had been somebody other than Helena who took Ada? Helena is crazy but not evil, she does want to help people and he cannot imagine her ever actually physically harming a child, not even to get to her father. But somebody else, a member of the Bratva or somebody with a grudge against him like Slade Wilson or even somebody worse? They would not take his daughter, they would kill her. And if Oliver was powerless to stop Ada’s kidnapping from somebody as unpolished as Helena Bertinelli, how can he hope protect her? How can he keep her safe from somebody as deadly as the Dark Archer, should the other archer ever learn of his identity?

Diggle is silent for a few moments, and Oliver takes down several more agents until they are in sight of Frank Bertinelli, who runs, “ _I’ve got her_!” Diggle announces, and the knot in Oliver’s chest releases just a little, but it will not fully go until he sees his baby in person. “ _I’m on my way out_!” he hears Felicity let out a sob, but his attentions are no longer on his daughter now that he knows she is safe. No, now his focus in entirely on Helena Bertinelli.

“HELENA!” he roars from behind her, nocking an arrow and pointing it directly at her. She freezes.

“Don’t do anything rash, Oliver.” She warns, “Or you’ll never see your daughter again.”

“My daughter is safe and on her way back to her mother. Which means that you are the woman who threatened to hurt her and you now have no leverage over me. What do you think is about to happen? What do you think I would do to the person who took my child against her will?” he taunts, watching Frank recede into the distance as he makes his getaway. For the first time since her return, he sees genuine fear in Helena.

“Come on now, Oliver.” She cajoles, “You wouldn’t hurt me. I haven’t done anything to her, she was safe.” She is begging now, “I was never going to hurt her, you know that.” Oliver lets go of his arrow, burying it into Helena’s leg. She cries out.

“I have tortured men for less. I _skinned a man alive_ for less,” he whispers to her, malicious in his intent, “And you cannot possibly understand what a parent would do for their child. What _I_ would do for _my child_! You took her from her family and frightened her and locked her up to use her as leverage! There is no forgiveness for that.” He looses another arrow into her other leg, leaving her crying on her knees, unable to move.

Lethally, he advances, murder in his heart, he has every intention to kill Helena, and to make it as painful as possible. “Step back!” yells a voice, making Oliver look up from his target. He sees Detective Hall advancing, gun raised at him, “Drop the weapon and surrender!” Helena takes her chance, using his distraction against him and she leaps for her crossbow, firing a bolt. Oliver dives out of the way just in time to avoid it hitting him, but it continues to sail through the air until it makes a home in the detective’s knee. She screams in pain, making Oliver react quickly, shooting a third arrow into Helena, piercing through her wrist and making her drop the bow.

He advances again, ready to finish her off but there is more noise all around, officers arriving on the scene. He does not care, he wants her dead for threatening his daughter, “ _Oliver_ ,” Felicity’s voice breaks through the haze, “ _Oliver, stop. She’s not worth it. She’s not worth you getting arrested. Come home_.” She does not mean to their house. She means to her. To Ada. To his family.

It knocks some sense into him, making him realise that she is right, Helena is crippled and on the verge of arrest. Him killing her will do nothing but stop her from suffering justice for her actions. It will only land him locked up away from his loved ones. He takes off, rushing from the scene and back to his family so that he can hold his daughter in his arms and know that she is safe again.

When he gets back to the Foundry, Felicity is crying with Ada in her arms and Diggle standing protectively over them. Ada is crying out for him, and he rushes over to gather both of them in his arms, the small family relishing in being back together after hours of trauma. Once they are all calm enough, they go home, Diggle still hovering protectively around Ada right up until they make it back safely. Felicity gets Ada ready for bed, Oliver keeping a watchful eye on them as he simmers down after the day. He will struggle to take his eyes away from his daughter for a while after this.

Because of that, and because Felicity cannot bear to be apart from Ada either, needing to see that her daughter is safe too, they bring Ada to bed with them, cocooning her between the two of them protectively. Ada struggles to sleep at first, but soon the exhaustion of the day overtakes her and she rests in both of her parents’ arms. Oliver and Felicity stay awake long into the morning, arms around one another as they lay in tender silence, cherishing that they are all safe and whole and together.

**Salvation**

_Across the room your silhouette_

When Thea’s soulmate, Roy, gets taken by another vigilante intent on saving the Glades but going about it in a far more sadistic way than Oliver has ever even considered, he knows that it is time to come fully clean to her. For weeks, he has been wanting to tell her that Felicity is his soulmate and that Ada is not just calling him ‘Daddy’ because he is with Felicity, but because he is her biological father too. But he has been struggling to find a way to do so, knowing that the only way for him to explain it would be if he comes clean and tells her _everything_. Including telling her that he is the Hood, which is something that Felicity has been encouraging him to do. He does not want to lie to her anymore. He does not want to add more lies to his existing ones. But he is also fearful of her reaction. They are finally in a good place, Thea is finally making her way to a good place mentally. He does not want to risk that.

  
He could just save Roy, leaving Thea in fear until he does, but it is the perfect opportunity to be honest with her and he knows that he cannot let his fears make him miss it. So when he finds her in Verdant sobbing over the news and the footage of Roy, he makes his decision.

“Thea,” he says gently, coaxing her attention away from Roy on the screen, “Come here, I have something to show you.”

“Ollie… I… I _can’t_. Roy is… he’s… I _can’t_ lose him, Ollie! I love him, he’s my soulmate, we’re supposed to get forever together!” she sobs.

“I know,” he murmurs, wrapping and arm around her shaking shoulders to steer her towards his office, “I know how you’re feeling, but I think this can help.”

“What do you mean? How could you possibly understand how I’m feeling right now?” she strains to keep her eyes on the screen even as he guides her away.

“Felicity is my soulmate.” He confesses, “I’ve known for a while now, she’s known since February.”

“I know, Ollie,” Thea says, still trying to get back to the screen even as they approach her office, “But she’s never been kidnapped, has she? You can’t understand.”

“You knew?”

“Of course I did.” Thea snaps, “It was obvious, you’ve never been like this with anyone before and I love that for you but you can’t understand what I’m going through.” Oliver will unpack that later and allow himself to dwell on who else might know if he has been so obvious about it, but right now he needs to comfort his sister.

“Last week, Felicity was attacked by Helena Bertinelli.” he tells Thea, giving her pause, “And Helena used Ada as leverage to make Felicity hack the FBI for her and then she kidnapped Ada in order to blackmail me.”

“What?” Thea gasps, temporarily distracted, “Why was this not on the news?”

They are walking down the steps to the lair now, and Oliver stays silent as Thea asks him why they are going to the basement, which she believes to be flooded. Hand on the lever to turn on the lights, he turns to her, “Because of this.” And then he reveals his life as the Hood to her.

Thea says nothing, just looking around with her mouth slightly agape, “You’re the Hood.” She states.

“Yes.”

“This is what you do all the time, when you’re pretending to be irresponsible and disappearing with terrible lies about where you’re going?” Oliver had not known she had noticed that.

“Yes.”

“Thank you.” Thea shocks him, rushing over to hug him, “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asks, bewildered.

“For helping all of the people that you do. For pretending to be one person so that you can go out and be your true self and save lives.”

“Oh.”

“You’re going to save Roy?” she asks.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to.” He promises, and then the door opens to reveal Felicity, Ada and Diggle, who has taken to being their guard (mostly Ada’s guard) since the incident since Oliver does not really need guarding anyway.

“Daddy!” Ada says, like she always does when she sees him, “Auntie Tee-ah! You know Daddy’s secret too now?”

“Yeah.” Thea says, taken aback by the presence of her niece amongst the darkness of the lair.

“We be hones’ with Auntie Tee-ah now?”

“Yes, we can be honest with Auntie Thea.” Oliver smiles, “Thea, we have a lot to discuss, and I have a lot to explain. I honestly didn’t expect you to take this so well, but I promise I will tell you everything once Roy is safe. The only other thing that you should know right now is that Ada is my daughter.” Thea opens her mouth, presumably to be smart and tell him that she already knows that but Oliver stops her, “And I mean that emotionally but also… biologically. She’s mine.”

Thea gapes again, silent.

“But… _how_?”

“I promise I’ll explain.” He says, “But Roy is more important right now. Can you watch Ada while we work?”

“O-okay.” Thea stammers, and then picks up Ada, “Come on munchkin, let’s let Momma and D-daddy work.”

“Go get bad guys!” Ada growls in an adorable imitation of her father.

They save Roy and they come clean to Thea about everything. It is a lot for her to process, but she is happy that they have been honest with her, knowing how hard it is for Oliver to open up to people since the island. Knowing how hard it was for him to open up even before, when he had not been through all of the things that he now has. She is particularly happy about having a niece, though her comments about them having another baby start almost immediately, making them both groan as Ada latches on and talks about how much she would like a sibling for hours on end. But, really, neither of them mind. Being honest to Thea takes a weight from Oliver’s chest and sat in his home with his soulmate, sister, daughter and friend surrounding him, he is happy. He can see the rest of his life lying before him, just waiting for him to be ready to reach out and take it. To start his future with his loved ones.

That future is so close now. He can feel it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final part will be up over the weekend.


	3. This night is flawless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ada meets some new people and then the Undertaking arrives and we reach the end of her story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoy the ending to this. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope that it is a satisfying ending - this part is the longest of the three.
> 
> Thank you to my friends who let me moan about editing this and who encouraged me through writing it, you know who you are and I love you.
> 
> I can't really believe this is the end, it feels strange because it's now officially the longest thing I've posted but it's only taken 8 days to post so it almost doesn't feel like it. I'll miss this little family a lot, writing them was a joy and I hope that the end of their story makes you smile <3
> 
> Okay, here we go.

**Part Three ~ _This night is flawless_**

**Unfinished Business**

_playful conversation starts_

Telling Thea makes them realise that, whatever it may be that she is involved in with Walter’s disappearance and the list, Moira also deserves to know, and so does Raisa. Hopefully, having her granddaughter in her life will help Moira to properly process what is happening with Walter and they can work on moving forwards together as a family. They take advantage of the long standing family dinner plans that the Queens have on a Sunday. Only Moira has actually attended the dinner in weeks, both Oliver and Thea intent on avoiding her for various reasons, but they know that she deserves to know her granddaughter. They also debate whether to tell the women that Oliver is Ada’s biological father as well as her chosen father and decide that they should, which leads to them spending a considerable amount of time trying to come up with a cover story.

When Moira asks, Oliver tells her that both he and Thea will be attending and asks that the table be set for four guests as well as the three family members. If this surprises Moira, she does not show it. Felicity is even more nervous for the event than Oliver had been about telling Ada, her fear of Moira Queen an intense thing. She is almost more nervous to tell Raisa, the woman who raised Oliver and Thea. Almost but not quite.

Oliver holds Ada, who is wearing an adorable white summer dress with patterns of blue patronuses decorating it and her blonde curls loose and brushing her shoulders, in one arm. He takes Felicity’s hand with his other as they walk in together, reminding her that she has already met both Moira and Raisa and that it will all be fine. He hopes that he is correct. He knows that he has only avoided his mother’s interrogation about Ada and Felicity because she has been so distracted and busy after everything that happened over the holidays. He also knows how protective his mother can be over her children and he could tell from her cold demeanour that she had been sceptical about his girls when she briefly met them in December. The few times that they have been to his home since, they have managed to avoid her judgemental eye but Oliver cannot help but wonder what assumptions his mother has made about them and how much harder those assumptions are about to make his night.

Raisa, however, has seen both Felicity and Ada a couple of times. Especially Ada when Oliver has been watching over his daughter with Felicity at work. She already loves the little girl and Oliver knows that she will be thrilled to learn that Oliver has found his soulmate and daughter and is happy with them. He would not be surprised if she has already worked some of the nature of his relationships with them out.

Predictably, Raisa is utterly thrilled to see Ada again. Almost as thrilled as Ada is to see her. Ada adores Raisa, not in the least because the woman always offers Ada snacks whenever she sees her. Raisa informs them that Moira is already in the dining room, awaiting them. Oliver and his girls hang around the entrance hall with Raisa for a short while, letting Ada babble out everything that she is bursting to tell Raisa since it has been a few weeks since they last saw one another but eventually they have no choice but to go in.

Thea and Roy are already seated with Moira and the atmosphere is a little tense as Moira looks over Roy disapprovingly. It does not bode well. Things become even icier when Oliver enters, Felicity and Ada in tow and Moira turns her disapproving gaze upon Oliver’s soulmate.

“Hello Mom.” He says, “You remember Ada and Felicity, right?”

“Mmhmm.” Moira acknowledges reluctantly. Ada stays quiet for once, obviously sensing the tension and feeling shy like she often does with strangers because of it.

“Hello Missus Queen.” Felicity smiles at Moira, her voice just slightly trembling from the nerves.

“Miss Smoak.”

Oliver pulls out the seat next to the one next to him for Felicity and then perches Ada on the one between them, dragging them all together so that Ada is boxed in and cannot fall to the floor should she grow too excited and forget she is sat on a chair with no sides. Moira watches it all with calculating interest, analysing his ease with the little girl and her trust in him. He makes small talk with Thea and tries his hardest not to glare at Roy (he is a good kid, even if he is dating Oliver’s little sister and he is getting enough glares from Moira as it is) as he does so. Felicity is mostly mute, but does exchange a few words with Roy.

“Momma, wha’s for dinner?” Ada pipes up, a little of her shyness vanishing as the atmosphere is warmed by the low conversations happening.

“I don’t know, baby, you’ll have to ask Raisa.”

“She’ll be along in a moment with the food, Ada-bug.” Oliver interjects, “I’m sure you’ll love it.” He has been expanding Ada’s taste buds since moving in with them. Once he discovered what a horrible cook Felicity is (and spent a good few minutes teasing her about having finally found her one weakness), he had immediately put the years of time spent with Raisa to use to feed his girls all of the best meals he could think of. With the added bonus of improving the health level of their diets. He is proud to say that he is the one who finally got Ada eating broccoli with his sautéed broccoli recipe.

“Oliver,” Moira says, effectively ending his conversation with his daughter, “You mentioned that there would be four guests.” Oliver says nothing, waiting for her to continue even though he can tell that he is supposed to understand the implication and respond, “Well I can see three here: Mister Harper, Miss Smoak and the young Miss Smoak, but no fourth. Might I ask who it is that we are still waiting for?”

“I thought that it would be nice for Raisa to join us tonight.” He says cheerfully, actually managing to take his mother aback.

“Oh.”

Moira’s eyes sweep the table once again and then she clearly decides that it is time for her to interrogate Felicity, “Well, Miss Smoak, this is the second time we have met.”

“Yes.” Felicity squeaks, eyes wide. Oliver reaches over to hold her hand out of view, under the table, “I mean… well, I’ve seen you around the building – QC that is. But I don’t think you’ve ever really seen me.”

“Ah, yes. You work for QC. You know, I remember my husband mentioning you on more than one occasion. The IT girl who caught the eye of the CEO and then who seems to have wormed her way into the life of the owner’s son. Rather curious, don’t you think?”

Anger bubbles up in Oliver, “Mom.” He warns.

“And it would seem you also have my son waiting hand and foot on your daughter. Like mother like daughter, would you say?” Moira presses, ignoring Oliver.

“Mom.” Oliver repeats, growing steadily more infuriated.

“What is it you’re looking for, Miss Smoak? First my husband, now my son, you’re really working through my family. What do you want? A promotion? Money? Power? Because you’re unlikely to find any here. If I have to, I will make sure that you never get to manipulate your way into getting your hands on a thing of my family’s.” Her eyes are hard on Felicity, boring into Oliver’s soulmate.

“Mom stop.” This time it is Thea hissing at their mother before Oliver gets the chance, “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“My daughter too? Impressive. And tonight was what? Your night to win me over too? It won’t happen. There is no place for you within this family. Oliver isn’t the commitment type, and even if he were I regret to inform you that he has been blessed with a mark and any commitment he has will be for his soulmate and their eventual family. Not for you.” Moira smirks, “I don’t know what your game is, Miss Smoak. But I can assure you that it is wasted here.

Oliver opens his mouth once again, intent on yelling at his mother, defending the love of his life and then storming out at the first available opportunity with his family in tow but Felicity beats him to it. Throughout Moira’s whole speech, she has been silent and hurt, the spiteful assumptions Moira has made about her hitting her like knives to her chest so strongly that Oliver can feel each stab of pain through their bond. But now, Felicity is furious.

So furious that Oliver can feel her inhibitions flying away as she rises to her feet, gloriously incensed, “What would you know about it?” she hisses, “You don’t know me, you don’t know my daughter and you certainly don’t know your son if that’s what you think of him. Have you even made any effort to get to know the man he is now since his return? He’s been back for seven months but could you tell me a thing about him? Could you tell me what he does every day? Where he goes? No. Because before Walter’s disappearance you were so busy trying to force him to fit into the mould you had made for him in your life – to see him as the boy who left here on the _Gambit_ – that you only saw what you wanted him to be and what he was not being. Not what he was.”

She is breathing heavily, a whirlwind of both fear and adrenaline that bleeds through to Oliver, making his heart pound both with his soulmate’s emotions and his exhilaration at seeing her so riled up, a flush on her cheeks and her eyes sparkling passionately, “And since his disappearance, you’ve barely spent a moment with Oliver or Thea. You’ve been so busy pretending that everything is fine that you haven’t taken the time to actually see what’s right in front of you. Did you know that Thea’s been averaging an A since February? Did you know that Roy is her soulmate? Did you know that Oliver hasn’t slept in this house since March? No, you didn’t have a clue. Stop judging your children on the images you have of them and the people they used to be and open up your eyes and look at the incredible people sat before you right now before you go around flinging baseless accusations at others.”

Panting, she crashes back into her chair and Oliver’s protective and reassuring arm. Ada just looks at Felicity curiously before turning to Moira with narrowed, intelligent eyes as she takes in the vibe in the room. Nobody can quite believe that Felicity actually just said all of that to Moira Queen’s face, least of all the Queen matriarch herself. Oliver has never been so proud. He wishes that he could rush away from the mansion, just he and Felicity, to go somewhere private that he can show her the affect that she has on him. To show her what her fury and her words do to him. Instead, he stays put, tensed and ready for his mother’s rebuttal.

Fortunately for everybody, just before any yelling can begin, Raisa walks in with three plates of food, “Mister Oliver,” she says as she lays a plate before him, “I made a smaller plate for Miss Ada, is that okay?”

“Perfect, thanks Raisa.” He smiles tersely, the air thick with unspoken words and the older woman leaves to go and fetch the remaining four plates. When she arrives back, she places one before the empty seat and looks up at Oliver, “That one’s for you, Raisa.” He tells her and he can see her utter shock at it. She has never been asked to dine with them formally before. An oversight on his part.

Nobody has a chance to say anything, either to Moira or about the mean, before Ada does, “This is _homemade_ food!” she says reverently, “Like you make, Daddy!” Felicity gasps sharply beside him, wincing, but Oliver is actually a little pleased and smirks smugly, proud of his daughter for inadvertently rubbing Moira’s own words in her face with just one sentence. Ada has just made it a lot easier to work out how to tell his mother, especially after their evening became a catastrophe before it could even start.

She is looking at him, eyes narrowed both in question and anger, “Well, looks like the cat’s out of the bag.” He jokes, “Yes, Ada-bug. Raisa homemade this food, she’s the one who taught me how to cook.”

“Woah.” She looks at Raisa with a new level of respect, “Momma help me cut please!” Felicity gladly accepts the task, using it to avoid Moira’s eyes.

“Mom, Raisa,” Oliver says to attract their attention from his family and onto him, “I organised this meal so that I could come and tell you that Felicity is my soulmate.” With a soft smile, he lifts their joined hands, looking at their daughter as she tucks into her freshly cut food, “And Ada here is our daughter.”

“You’re adopting the child?” Moira says, eyes still narrow, “You’re going to be with… this woman… and adopt another man’s child? Do you even know the father? Do you know his situation? Do you not think it possible that she forced a child on him to get child support and she is now aiming for you? Are you certain that her mark is not faked?

Oliver’s nostrils flare, “What the f- what is wrong with you?” he censors himself just in time, “Do you think I’m stupid? What grounds do you have to be saying these things? No, the mark is not a fake. Felicity would never do that but even if she were the kind of person who would, how could she even know what the mark was? More importantly, how could she possibly fake our bond? And yes, funnily enough, my soulmate and I have talked about our child’s paternity and I can guarantee you that Felicity is not the heartless, manipulative person you have invented in your mind. Ada was born of love and I love her that is all that matters. It’s all that concerns you. The rest is between Felicity, Ada and I.”

Moira gapes, never having heard Oliver talk to her with so much anger, so much passion. It mutes her, making her blink as she looks between Oliver and Felicity and then takes in the disgust that Thea is directing at her. Everybody around the table, even Raisa is rallied behind Felicity and his mother has no idea what to do about it. Where to go next.

The room once again falls silent. This time, it is Raisa who comes to the rescue, “Mister Oliver, are you planning on making your adoption of Miss Ada formal?” she smiles kindly at both Felicity and Ada, making the child giggle in delight. Ada really loves Raisa.

“Not exactly.” Oliver explains, addressing Raisa directly and trying to ignore his mother’s presence in the room so that he does not do anything rash. Part of him wants to take Raisa aside and explain everything to her privately but he knows that he and Felicity agreed to tell both Raisa and Moira and that, regardless of his mother’s treatment of his family tonight, she deserves to know. He knows that once she comes to terms with his new relationships and priorities, she will regret acting as she has and will want to be involved in Ada and Felicity’s lives.

“I’m still not ready to talk about my years away, but you need to know that I was not on the island for all of them. I was a prisoner in Hong Kong for some time and an organisation used hostages to get me to do their bidding.” He tells her the loosest version of the truth, just enough to make it plausible but not enough to divulge more than he is willing to.

“One of the things that I was forced to do for them involved me returning to Starling to get information from QC, something that I was uniquely suited for. While I was there, I ran into Felicity and she never saw my face or knew who I was but I was able to spend one night with her before I was forced to go back to protect the hostages. I did want to come home, I swear, but I was told that the hostages would be killed if anybody found out I was alive and I was not willing to risk that. Ada is my daughter, both because she is Felicity’s daughter and I love them both and because she is biologically mine. Though I would still see her as mine even if she were not. I did see her as mine before I knew and it took me a while to work out, but now I know and I’m happy. I’m so happy, and living with my soulmate and our daughter is more than I ever could have hoped for.”

Moira does not look like she believes him, but still, her voice quieter than he has ever heard it, she brokenly asks, “You were back here but you couldn’t come home?”

“Yes.” Oliver confirms, voice tight both from talking to his mother and with the memory of that time three years before, “Just over three years ago now.”

“And you met your soulmate because of it?” Moira is looking at Felicity in a new way.

“Yes.” Oliver’s voice is looser, softer as he turns to the woman he hopes to spend the rest of his life with.

“And… this is my granddaughter?” Moira finally looks at Ada, who is too busy tucking into her food to be paying any attention to the rest of them.

“This is your granddaughter, Ada.” Oliver nods.

“I am happy for you Mister Oliver. I have seen these two beautiful girls making you smile wider than I have ever seen and I am very pleased to see that you have finally seen what is right in front of you and are happy.” Raisa is smiling kindly but knowingly at them, one eye on the cheerful little girl between them.

“Thank you, Raisa.” Oliver cannot take his eyes from his girls.

“Queen Daddy,” Oliver winces, noticing Thea muffling a giggle, turning to his daughter to remind her not to call him that, but he finds himself greeted with wide, thoughtful eyes and stays silent whilst she talks, “Why you not Queen Smoak Daddy? Why your las’ name not Smoak?”

“What do you mean, Ada-bug?”

“Daddies norm’ly have the same las’ name but you’s called Queen not Smoak. An’ your momma an’ Auntie Tee-ah called Queen too.”

“Um… yeah,” Oliver says, “Well, baby, do you remember when Momma and I told you that she didn’t know who I was when you were born?” Ada nods, still munching away, “Well because of that, she couldn’t give you my name, she just gave you her name.”

“Can I have your name?”

Oliver freezes, “You want to take my last name?”

“I wanna have your and Momma’s names ‘cause you’s my momma and daddy!”

Oliver looks to Felicity, whose eyes are shining as much as his must be, and he can feel their shared love and joy through their bond. Somehow, without even fully understanding the situation in the room, their daughter has found the perfect way to wipe away the turmoil of the evening and she does not even know it, “I think that’s a great idea, baby.” Felicity says to Ada, “How does Ada Queen Smoak sound?”

Even as Ada scrunches her nose up a little at the name, Oliver speaks up, “I think I prefer Ada Smoak Queen.” Privately, he thinks about how much he likes the idea of Felicity’s name going first. And how much he might like to add her name to his and his to hers one day. Ada Smoak Queen, Felicity Smoak Queen, Oliver Smoak Queen. Yes, that sounds like a dream come true.

Ada grins, “Yep! I Ada Smoak Queen nows!” she turns to Moira, “Hi I’m Ada Smoak Queen are you my gramma too ‘cause you’s Daddy’s momma?”

And Moira Queen, the strongest and most rigid woman Oliver has ever known, the woman who just spent several minutes insulting his family because of some incorrect preconceptions she built up in her mind, the woman who was just yelled at by his soulmate and has been sat mostly mute since, she just about melts.

When he sees that, Oliver knows that everything is going to be okay.

**Home Invasion**

_I’d open up_

After the family dinner, Moira becomes rather suddenly and vehemently welcoming of Ada and Felicity. It is almost too much, and Oliver knows that it is in part an attempt to make up for her behaviour at the dinner but also in part to make sure that she can spend a lot of time with his girls so that she can just really check that they are legitimate. She insists that attendance to their weekly family dinners become mandatory for all of the family – even Roy who she warms to as soon as she sees how sweet he is with Ada. She also insists that they stay over at night after the dinner every week, and once Ada hears that she has the chance to stay over in her grandmother’s house with Raisa and the gigantic rooms, there is no stopping her.

Whilst the first couple of times are rather awkward and stilted, Ada’s ever-present joy and Moira’s excessive need to reunite their family make it so that they soon fall into a rhythm. It might be a slight inconvenience, and Oliver has not quite forgiven his mother yet, but he knows that Felicity has and it grows harder and harder to stay mad when he sees her fawning over Ada.

Because of that, the entire family is present when there is an arrival at the door long past midnight and after Oliver has returned from a quick patrol of the Glades with Felicity running coms from her tablet in their bedroom at the mansion, right next to Ada’s. All of them had been in their pyjamas and asleep, but the sound is insistent and the clanging of the doorbell impossible to ignore. Oliver is the one to answer the door, his protective instincts rising and his body going on alert as he leaps out of bed first. When he opens the door, he is shocked to find not somebody trying to get photos for some magazine or an armed assassin, but Laurel Lance, Tommy Merlyn and a little boy.

“Tommy?” Oliver asks, shocked to see the friend he has not spoken to since he quit his job managing Verdant and went to work for Merlyn Global. Not for lack of trying, he has attempted to contact Tommy several times but his old friend has not been accepting his calls. “Laurel?” he acknowledges the other person on the doorstep. He realises, as the cold breeze from outside hits his bare skin, that he is shirtless and wearing only a loose fitting pair of joggers that he had pulled on last minute on his journey down. It is putting his scars on full display for his old friends for the first time.

Laurel takes them in with wide eyes, something like wanting and pity in them. Tommy looks like he is finally realising everything that Oliver has been through, everything that he has survived and something is changed between the two men in that moment. And the little boy with them is just staring at Oliver, fear and awe evident in equal measure.

Laurel opens her mouth to speak but then Felicity arrives, bleary eyed and sleepy and mostly hidden by Oliver’s body, “Oliver? Who is it? What’s happening?” he looks behind him and has to force down his natural reaction to seeing his gorgeous soulmate wearing just one of his shirts, which hangs too low on her body for him to be able to tell whether she is also wearing underwear or not. Her words make Laurel and Tommy’s attention switch right over to her as she comes into view by Oliver’s side.

“Oh!” she exclaims, “Tommy Merlyn and Laurel Lance and… a child. What’s your name, buddy?”

“Taylor Moore,” he whispers, taken in by Felicity’s sweet nature enough to forget Oliver stood beside her.

“Hi Taylor,” Felicity smiles, “Why don’t you come inside and out of the cold and we’ll get you something warm to drink while Tommy and Laurel let us know what’s happening here?” he nods mutely, taking Felicity’s proffered hand (much to Laurel’s consternation as the boy leaves her side and goes to Felicity’s) and he walks into the mansion with her. He is just as frightened and awed by the house as he was by Oliver.

“Oliver?” He hears his mother say and he looks up to see her at the top of the stairs, “What’s going on?”

“Tommy and Laurel are here.” He looks back at the couple, “They were just about to explain why.”

“Oh.” Moira comes down hastily, “Hello Tommy, Laurel.” She smiles at them tensely, “And who is this?” she sees the little boy holding Felicity’s hand.

“This is Taylor Moore.” Felicity says, “He came here with Laurel and Tommy.”

The six of them make their way into the kitchen so that Felicity can fix up Taylor with some warm milk. The poor boy looks exhausted and traumatised, but neither Laurel nor Tommy are focused on him. They are focused on Felicity as she lets her kind disposition take over and she mothers Taylor.

“What’s happening?” Oliver asks to bring them back onto topic, one eye still on Felicity and the boy.

“I was representing Taylor’s family in a case at work.” Laurel explains, “But when I went into work yesterday, I found out that both of his parents had been…” she looks hesitantly at Taylor and then whispers the next word, “ _Murdered_. Some hitman got them in their own home and he was the sole survivor. The guy must have been hired by the scumbag the Moores were suing, it’s the only explanation.

“Anyway, I volunteered to take Taylor in and watch him until things can be sorted, we thought that the hitman would be gone – who would take out a hit on a seven year old? But earlier tonight we were attacked in my home by the hitman. We barely got out alive, and only because my father found out what I was doing and kept watch outside. And we didn’t really know where to go but then Tommy suggested that we come here to you. Your house is probably the safest place in Starling with all of your security.” At this, Tommy sends a pointed look in Oliver’s direction and he realises that, even though he is not on speaking terms with his friend, Tommy still trusts him enough to know that he will do the right thing and use his considerable resources to protect the child. It fills him with a pleasant warmth, “So… would it be okay for the three of us to stay here until we can make sure Taylor is safe?” Laurel finishes.

A small body plants itself beside Oliver and his arm instinctively goes around her. Taylor has fallen asleep on the chair in the corner and Felicity has come to join the conversation. She looks like she wants to say something but stops herself and looks to Moira instead. It is, after all, Moira’s house and her choice will be final.

  
“Of course you can stay here.” Moira says, “We’ll set you up in two of the guest rooms near Oliver, Thea and Ada’s rooms.”

“Ada?” Laurel frowns, and as if on cue, Oliver hears footsteps behind him and a little squeal.

“Momma!” he turns to see Ada in Thea’s arms, “I looked for you but you’s not there!” Ada squirms until Thea deposits her in Felicity’s lap, “Where you go?” Ada demands.

Thea comes to sit by Felicity’s other side, absentmindedly reaching to hi-five Ada as she does, “I got up to find out what all of the commotion was about and found Ada wandering around the hall calling for the two of you.” Oliver feels a pang of guilt.

“We’re just here, Bug.” He says, tapping her chin with his finger to make her smile, “The doorbell rang so we had to come and see who was here.”

It is then that Ada and Thea notice the new people in the room. Oliver sees Thea’s eyebrows raise and an entertained expression on her face. She is far too excited for whatever is about to happen. Ada, meanwhile, just leaps up with a grin, “Hi!” she greets them, “I’m Ada Smoak Queen, what’s your name?” In unison, Tommy and Laurel’s jaws drop.

“Ada-bug,” Oliver pulls Ada from Felicity’s lap and onto his own, tucking Felicity under his arm securely, “This is Laurel and this is Tommy, they’re old friends of mine.”

“You’s my daddy’s friends?” Ada asks, looking at them like they hold the secrets to the universe, “You tells me funny stories ‘bout him too like Auntie Tee-ah does?” neither of them respond, too shocked to form words.

“Tommy, Laurel,” Oliver breaks the short silence, this is Felicity, my soulmate and this is our daughter, Ada.” He does not bother to explain that statement, let them draw their own conclusions.

“Daughter?” Laurel manages to choke out.

“Daddy is Lau’lel okay? She lookin’ a bit funny.” Laurel does indeed look funny, her face drained of all blood as she looks between the father and daughter before her.

Supressing a snort at his daughter’s blunt observation, he answers, “She’s just surprised to meet you is all, Bug.” He kisses Ada’s forehead.

“I’m a surprise?” Ada grins mischeviously, “BOO!” she predictably jumps up into Oliver’s face. It has been something she has been doing ever since Oliver explained the concept of a surprise to her and it is undeniably adorable.

“Oh!” he fakes his surprise, “What a surprise Ada-bug! You got me good.”

“I know.” Ada settles back into his lap, yawning a little.

She scans around the room and spots Taylor on the chair in the corner, “Who dat?” she points.

“That’s Taylor, Ada,” Felicity pushes Ada’s little hand down so that she is no longer pointing, “He’s going to stay with us at Grandma Moira’s house for a little while, is that okay?”

“He sleepin’?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I says hi when he ‘wake again.” Ada starts to fiddle with the tie on her pyjamas, ignoring the adults now that she has found out everything that she was interested in.

“You have a daughter?” Tommy’s voice is blank.

“I do.” Oliver nods.

“How long has this been…?” he trails off.

“Since about a week before the humanitarian gala.” Tommy’s nostrils flare at the reminder of the night that their relationship finally broke after over two decades.

“And you’re his soulmate?” He looks at Felicity.

“I am.”

Tommy just nods, working his jaw, “Nice to meet you.” He grunts and Oliver cannot tell whether he is being genuine or not, but Felicity smiles at his friend anyway.

There is a clear tension in the room, but Moira is ever the master socialiser and she cuts through it, “Well,” she says, “I think that Ada here could do with getting back to sleep and Taylor might deserve somewhere more comfortable than a kitchen chair after the last few days he’s had.” It jostles everybody but Laurel back to life.

  
“Right.” Oliver mutters, “I’ll carry Taylor up to a room, Felicity will you take Ada?” Felicity agrees, “Okay, Tommy, Laurel, just follow me to your regular room.” Tommy’s room is on the opposite side to Oliver and Felicity’s as Ada’s is, and just across the hall there is one that will suit Taylor. Oliver lifts Taylor into his arms, Felicity mirroring him with a drowsy Ada, and they start to walk out, Tommy and Laurel leading the way. Just before the door shuts on his mother and Thea, Oliver hears his sister say, “Well, that was less dramatic than I expected.”

Taylor sleeps until long into the morning, Tommy and Laurel staying up in their room as the other six occupants of the house get up and go about their daily business. Felicity and Moira have gone to work and Thea to school, leaving Oliver sitting with Ada as they watch some TV show she loves when Tommy makes his way down. “Ollie.” He greets, looking him over where he sits with his daughter nestled with her back leaning up against him, still not fully awake but already refusing to go back to sleep.

“Hi Mister Tommy.” Ada chirps, “Wanna come watch with us?”

“Uh,” Tommy is unsure as he looks at Ada’s smiling face, but he nods stiffly, “Sure.” He sits on a different sofa to the one that Oliver and Ada are occupying and ignores the show so that he can focus on Ada. “So… you’re a dad.”

Oliver, who has been filled with tension since his friend entered the room, cracks a soft smile, “Yeah,” he runs a hand through Ada’s sleep-tangled curls affectionately, “Yeah I am.”

“How’re you feeling about that?” Tommy checks, knowing that Oliver has long since shirked all and any responsibility he has ever been given.

“Well, it was unexpected, for sure.” He admits, “But I wouldn’t change it for the world. Ada and Felicity… they’re my everything.”

“Shush, Daddy.” Ada says crossly, “I’m watchin’!”

“Sorry, Bug.” Oliver chuckles and he and Tommy fall silent, the dark haired man just watching the father and daughter quietly.

When the show ends, Oliver stands to take Ada to get dressed for the day and is surprised when Tommy comes with them, “She looks like you.” Tommy tells him as he helps Ada brush her teeth, “Well, she looks like Thea, but it’s the parts of Thea that look like you.”

“I always think she just looks like Felicity in miniature.”

“Oh, for sure, she’s Felicity’s double. But there are things about her that are totally you too.” Tommy actually smiles a little and Oliver takes it as a win, “I guess this means that you weren’t on the island for all of those years, doesn’t it?”

Oliver stiffens, but he answers truthfully, “No. I wasn’t. But I also wasn’t just free to come home, I only knew Felicity for one night before I was gone again.” he helps Ada into her jeans and a Princess Leia t-shirt with the word ‘RESIST’ emblazoned on it.

“Well, however it worked out, I want you to know I am happy for you.” Tommy’s words shock Oliver, “I may not agree with your lifestyle or methods, but I still want to see you happy. And they make you happy. Being settled with your soulmate and a kid suits you.”

“Thank you.” Oliver considers his next words as he brushes Ada’s hair into a ponytail, “I know that you don’t like what I’ve been doing, but I want you to know that I always do it with the best of intentions. I never kill unless I have no other choice.” Tommy’s jaw ticks at his words but he does not go running from the room and Oliver allows himself to hope that his friend is starting to understand.

Oliver clears his throat to dispel some of the tension in the air, “Anyway, how are things between you and Laurel?”

Tommy grimaces a little, “They’re… okay.” He replies hesitantly, “To be honest, we’re rarely in the same place anymore, both of our jobs are so busy.”

“Tommy, are you happy?” Oliver frowns. Tommy does not respond. Which, in itself, is very telling, “Tommy you deserve to be happy. You need to find what it is that makes you happy, and if that’s Laurel then great. But if not, both of you deserve a chance to find someone else.”

“Mister Tommy,” Ada pipes up, Oliver almost having forgotten that he has an extremely intelligent two year old for a daughter with a penchant for listening in on everything going on around her and absorbing information, “Ev’ryone gotta be happy. You gotta be happy too.” She hops away from Oliver and reaches up to his friend. Oliver nods at Tommy, prompting the other man to pick the toddler up. Once she is high enough, she presses a slightly toothpaste filled kiss to Tommy’s cheek, “C’mon, Mister Tommy. You come play with me an’ then you feel happy.”

Oliver watches as his best friend’s face splits in an involuntary grin at his daughter’s words and it gives him something that he never knew he needed. “Miss Bug?” Oliver interrupts, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oh, sorry Daddy.” Ada says indulgently, “You can play with us too.”

Laughing, Oliver grabs her from Tommy and hangs her upside down from her ankles, delighting in her giggling squeals, “No!” he jostles her playfully, “You have to finish getting ready before you’re allowed to play little miss.”

“But Daddy,” Ada whines, “Mister Tommy need cheerin’ up. I gots no time to be brushin’ teeth.”

“I think Mister Tommy can wait a few minutes, Ada.” Oliver wrestles her back to an upright position and begins to lather her teeth in toothpaste as gently as possible.

“How about Uncle Tommy?” Tommy offers, making both of the Queens look up at him to see his hopeful eyes on Oliver, “Since I’m basically your daddy’s brother.” Oliver feels hope spark. He feels like this is Tommy starting to open up to him, welcoming him back. This is Tommy’s way of saying that he is going to stick around.

“You’s my Unca?” Ada gasps through a mouthful of minty froth, looking at Oliver for confirmation.

“Yeah, Ada-bug,” he smiles emotionally, “You can call him Uncle Tommy.”

Not long after, Laurel appears with Taylor as Tommy and Ada play. Ada clocks onto the other child immediately and rushes over, babbling about what games they are going to play. Taylor quietly complies, still looking like he has seen far too much for one so young but a little more present than he had been the night before.

Laurel sits beside him as Ada demands various things from Tommy, looking very serious about the nature of her game. “You have a soulmate.” She says, voice strained.

“You know I do.” Oliver replies. She has, after all, seen him naked before. She has seen the mark on his hip that evidences the rare bond he has with Felicity.

“I’ve always known it in theory,” Laurel acknowledges, “But it’s one thing to see the mark and another to see her. That mark could just be another of your tattoos but her… you love her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, she’s the most incredible person I’ve ever met, how could I not love her?” Oliver replies without thinking, “And she also happens to be my soulmate and the mother of my daughter. I can’t imagine how anybody could not love her.”

A sour expression fills Laurel’s face, “You really have moved on.” She mutters.

Oliver looks at her, surprised, “Of course I have. We both have. It’s been almost six years, Laurel and it’s not like our relationship was ever particularly healthy to begin with.” She flinches at that, whether from the reminder of his infidelity or because it makes her think of Sara, Oliver does not know.

“No.” she sneers, “We never were all that healthy, but we were meant to be together. Does Felicity know about everything from before the island?”

“She knows what she needs to know, and she understands that I am not that person anymore.” Oliver’s voice is cold and hard, Laurel’s tone setting something off in him.

“We’ll see.” Laurel then stands and takes herself away, and Oliver cannot help but hope that Tommy decides that he is not happy with Laurel because something about her reaction tells him that she is not all in where his best friend is concerned. Something about it makes him wonder if she still harbours ideas about the two of them reconciling and being together the way that she thought they would be all those years ago.

The very next night, just as Oliver is about to leave his family’s home to head out with Diggle in pursuit of Floyd Lawton, his brother’s killer, he hears a noise. Right outside his and Felicity’s bedroom. It gives him just enough warning that he is ready when he opens the door and sees a man, weapon in hand, stalking down the hallway. The hitman.

Oliver attacks before the hitman even realises that he has been caught, knowing that the lives of not just the little boy under his protection but of his family and Tommy and Laurel are all depending on his ability to defeat the intruder. The two grapple furiously, Oliver keeping the hitman far enough down the hallway that he cannot get to the rooms where the others are sleeping as Felicity (who has felt his fury and adrenaline across their bond) darts from their room to their daughter’s, ready to provide a final line of defence should anything happen.

Her movement catches the hitman’s attention, and Oliver watches as the man gets an idea and then heads straight for Ada’s room. Straight for his soulmate and daughter.

Oliver roars, incensed, and throws his entire body at the enemy, both of them going crashing violently to the ground. The noise is loud enough that Oliver can hear a whimper come from Ada’s room and the sounds of the others stirring and he knows that he has to take the fight away from them. He recovers faster than the hitman, and staggers to his feet, mustering up enough strength to send the man falling to the lower floor over the bannister. He stumbles down the stairs and is met with the hitman, worse for wear but ready for a fight.

The two of them battle it out, both of them driven by their goals. Oliver needs to keep everybody safe. The hitman wants to murder them all. Oliver will never let that happen.

Oliver is bloodied and bleeding by the time that the fight ends, his fist wrapping around a sharp poker that he thrusts through the hitman’s chest, killing him. He looks up to the top of the bannister where, moments after his victory, the faces of the love of his life and child appear. Quickly followed by four others. Detective Lance then arrives on the scene, late enough that Oliver knows the boy would have died if he had been anywhere other than in a room right next to his own. They got so lucky.

He explains his win by saying that Diggle has been giving him basic self-defence training and that he got lucky, which is true from a certain perspective. He can tell that Lance wants to pull him up on that, but that the man also knows that Oliver probably just saved Laurel’s life and he gets off easy. A lot of things can be said about Detective Lance and his vendettas against both Oliver and the Hood and his desire for both men to be one and the same but regardless of all of that, he is honourable. He is grateful and whilst he will never acknowledge what Oliver has done for Laurel and Taylor aloud, he will show his gratitude by not trying to arrest Oliver for it.

As soon as he can, he kisses Thea goodnight and tells Taylor that he is safe now and can find a new home, and then he takes his girls back up to his room.

“Daddy you’s hurt.” Ada says with a wobbly chin her tiny hands shaking in a way that makes Oliver’s heart clench guiltily, “I gots to fix you.” Oliver can tell that Ada, much like her mother, needs to do something to feel like she can help, so he lets her cover up his cuts and bruises before asserting that all three of them need sleep. Ada crawls into his arms and snuggles in as close as she can get, falling to sleep in his arms. The sight of his daughter sleeping in his arms and his soulmate watching them both with love and worry is enough to soothe Oliver and calm his mind. He sleeps.

**The Undertaking**

_There I was again tonight_

Diggle is initially angry at Oliver for not showing to the Lawton job, and feels betrayed as the assassin once again got away. But as soon as Oliver and Felicity explain the situation to him and assure him that Oliver was on his way right before the attack, Diggle is understanding, if still a little disappointed, and allows Felicity to comfort him about his lost chance for revenge. Ada somehow finds out that Diggle lost something he really wanted, and she writes him an adorable little card in which she promises to help him find it again which is sweet until Oliver really thinks about it, and then he just hopes that his daughter never actually finds out the details of what happened. It makes Diggle smile regardless.

That week is one of the busiest in a long time. For the first time in months, Felicity gets a hint as to where Walter might be, and they jump on it as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the mission requires them getting into an underground casino. Both Oliver and Diggle volunteer, but they are shot down by Felicity. Felicity, who grew up in casinos. Felicity, who can count cards. Felicity, who has the exact skillset required for the mission.

Oliver vehemently opposes her decision, unwilling to even consider putting the love of his life in that sort of dangerous situation but then Diggle – Diggle, who was the one to initially raise concerns about their ability to keep her safe in their world when she first joined the team – sides with her. And then Oliver’s soulmate is about to head into a casino filled with the worst kinds of criminals. His only salvation is that the casino has no Bratva presence.

Felicity looks undeniably gorgeous in the red dress that she gets for the occasion, but Oliver is unable to fully appreciate it as he is too worried about all of the variables that he cannot control in the mission. She is far more calm than he is, making jokes even though he can tell that she is nervous and trying to hide it. As she always does when she is nervous, she ends up babbling out an innuendo when he reminds her that he is right there, available on her com. “It feels really good having you inside me.” She rushes out before thinking, making Oliver think of the previous night and exactly how good it has felt to be inside her before he remembers that he is sat right next to Diggle, who sees Felicity like a sister. “And by you I mean your voice! And by me I mean my ear!” she covers, clearly remembering at the same time as him that Diggle is present.

“That would be my preference.” Oliver grunts out, trying to hide his blush from his friend who watches on uncomfortably, but still smugly.

Oliver does his best to ignore the way that the bond is burning between them, a combination of arousal and embarrassment heightened as they share in the feelings.

Felicity performs her role perfectly, right up until a second before she leaves when they discover her com. And break it. Diggle tries to stop Oliver, to tell him to trust in Felicity but Oliver could not care less. He has no idea what is happening to his soulmate beyond the fact that she is alive and scared and he is unwilling to wait to find out.

After he saves her, the heat between them that has been simmering away fades into the background, the shock and pain at the revelation that Walter is dead muting their desire for one another. Thea is babysitting Ada, who smiles up at Felicity when the two of them walk into her room and inadvertently wake her up in their need to just check that she is alive, “You look pretty, Momma.”

“Thank you, baby girl.” Felicity whispers, voice a little broken, “Go back to sleep now, Momma and Daddy are here.” Ada seems to sense the sombre mood of her parents, and does as she is told, her head cradled in her father’s hand and her hand resting in her mother’s.

But Walter is not dead. He is alive and being held by Malcolm Merlyn, and they save him. Felicity is reluctant to come to the hospital with Moira, Thea and Oliver. She frets about the fact that she only really knows Walter in a work capacity and that she is sort of the reason that he was kidnapped so springing her bond with Oliver and their shared daughter on him immediately after his return might not be the best thing. All three Queens brush aside her fears, dragging the two blondes along with them. The only reason that Felicity agrees to come along is because Moira clearly states, “You and Ada are part of the family now, and this is something we are going to celebrate as a family.” Which effectively shuts her up.

They do, however, agree to let Felicity and Ada wait outside as they go in to greet Walter so that they can ease him into meeting his future stepdaughter-in-law away from work and his new granddaughter. Though Walter is thrilled to see Oliver and Thea, Oliver can sense a coldness coming from him towards Moira. He wonders what it is that his stepfather knows.

To move past the awkwardness between her and her husband, Moira clears her throat, “Walter, we have somebody that we think you’d like to meet.” Walter raises his eyebrows in response, looking between Thea and Oliver for answers but Oliver just looks over to the door with a grin, actually rather excited to introduce Walter to his family. Though he and Walter never really had the chance to grow all that close, Oliver still craves a sense of parental approval from the man, and he knows that Felicity does too. Felicity enters holding not Ada but a bouquet of flowers that she definitely did not have when Oliver left her in the corridor, so he knows that her nerves must have led to her purchasing them.

“Hi, Mister Steele.” She smiles fleetingly, “I’m glad to see you back.”

“Miss Smoak, what are you doing here?” he sits up a little in bed.

Oliver walks over to Felicity, noticing Ada shyly hiding behind her legs and he lifts his daughter up, placing one hand on the small of Felicity’s back, “Walter,” he smiles genuinely, happiness bubbling as he sees the smile on Thea’s face and all of his family in one room, “Felicity is my soulmate.” Walter looks surprised but approving and Oliver had not realised how much he wanted Walter’s approval, “And this is Ada, our daughter.”

“Ada,” he addresses the little girl in his arms, “This is your Grandpa Walter.” They have been telling Ada about Walter, especially Thea, to whom he was like a second father, and Ada has been desperate to meet him.

“Hi Grandpa.” Ada whispers, her usual shyness coming out as she shrinks into Oliver.

Walter’s eyes have welled up and he has eyes only for the little girl, “She’s your daughter?” he asks Oliver, still looking at Ada, “And you want me to be her grandpa?”

“Yes.” It is Felicity who answers, “She’s been very excited to meet you. She’s never had a grandpa before what with Oliver’s dad being dead and mine being a cybercriminal on the run from the FBI.” She claps her hand over her mouth, “Which I did not mean to say… I’m sorry! I’m sure Mister Queen would have been a fantastic grandfather and I guarantee you that my father would have been a terrible one, he was a terrible father after all, what with him abandoning my mother and I when I was seven and-”

“Felicity, honey.” Oliver interrupts, amused but also still angry at Noah Kuttler for ever daring to hurt his love. He would let her keep going but Ada is looking up at Walter more and with less shyness and he can see his family hiding their own laughs at her lack of filter, “I think we should let Walter and Ada say hi to one another.”

“Right.” She mimes zipping her lips shut, cheeks a shade of red that Oliver has heard her describe as ‘mortified rouge’ before. Oliver sets Ada’s feet on the soft surface of Walter’s hospital bed, letting her pad her way up to her grandfather.

“Hi, Ada.” Walter smiles, already a natural with the girl, “I’m Walter, your grandfather.”

“Hi Grandpa Walter, I’m Ada Smoak Queen. I tooks my daddy’s name ‘cause I couldn’t when I was borned ‘cause Momma didn’t know Daddy’s names then.”

“Oh really?” Walter raises his eyebrow and Oliver prepares to explain the parts of their story that they can to his stepfather later on, once Ada is gone, “Well, I’m sure your daddy will tell me about that in his own time, whenever he is ready.” Oliver starts, surprised and his respect for his stepfather skyrockets as he knows that Walter was just telling him in no uncertain terms that there is no pressure for him to open up about his history with Felicity until he is ready. “But for now Ada, why don’t you tell me what your favourite things are?”

His question launches Ada into a babble about everything from her favourite TV show to her favourite time of having Thea look after her, and her voice fills the room with love and happiness. Ada allows them all to forget Moira’s role in everything happening, Walter’s reluctance to be around his wife and everything else beyond that child and that room.

**Darkness on the Edge of Town**

_Forcing laughter, faking smiles_

In their attempt to find out what Malcolm Merlyn’s plans for the city are, Oliver has to let Diggle kidnap both him and his mother. Felicity is wary about the plan but she knows that it is necessary, even if Ada does end up asking questions about the bruises on Oliver’s face after Diggle hits him multiple times.

“Daddy was clumsy Ada,” Diggle grins, lying to her when she inquires as to the nature and origin of Oliver’s injuries “He fell right onto my fist and hurt himself.”

“Daddy!” Ada gasps, whirling on her father and making the pink skirt of her dress swirl, “You gots to be more careful.” It is something that Felicity has said to Ada multiple times after the little girl has gotten two left feet and gone sprawling to the floor and it makes her grin to see her daughter mimicking her.

“Sorry Ada-bug.” Oliver says seriously even as he glares at a grinning Diggle in annoyance, “I promise to be more careful now.”

“M’kay.” Ada turns to Diggle, “Unca Digs, you keeps Daddy safe when he’s clumsy?”

“Yeah I’m the guy who cleans up all of your daddy’s messes.” Diggle laughs, swinging Ada up into his arms as both of them looks disapprovingly at where Felicity is cleaning up Oliver’s split lip.

“Good, he gotta be more careful Unca Digs, you gotta watch him close.”

“Oh, I promise I will.” Diggle is practically doubled over with laughter as he listens to the two year old talk about her father like he isn’t even in the room.

Felicity sees Oliver pouting as his daughter gangs up on him with Diggle and she cannot resist but to plant a soft kiss on his injured lip, something that immediately cheers him up.

“Eww, Momma! No!” Ada complains, “No kissin’ in the Arrow Cave!”

“I agree Ada,” Diggle chortles, “No kissing in the Foundry.” Oliver rolls his eyes and pulls Felicity in for another one, but lets her go when Ada complains again. That child has him wrapped around her little finger.

Felicity’s findings show that she cannot get all of the information that she needs without taking it straighter from the source – Merlyn Global. As he had when she needed to go into the casino, Oliver opposes the plan, unwilling to tempt fate and risk losing her again so soon after she was held at gunpoint. Felicity understands his reluctance, it is what she feels every single time she stays in the Foundry watching Oliver as he heads into battle. But she survives it because she knows that it is necessary, that he is doing good in the world. So he is going to have to get on board with it too because the plan is perfect and inevitable.

They drop Ada off with Raisa at the mansion, something that makes her extremely happy every time they do it as she adores the older woman. With Ada safe in Raisa’s arms, they head to Merlyn Global. Ever since the dinner at the Queen’s, Tommy and Oliver have been working back to being on speaking terms again. Tommy has come around to Felicity’s place on multiple occasions and sits, getting to know Ada, before he then talks to Oliver. He has even been willing to talk about the matter of the Hood several times and is starting to understand what Oliver is doing.

Oliver is somewhat hopeful that his friend will return to Verdant before long, especially since Felicity spoke to Tommy one on one and explained how she is able to not just accept Oliver’s crusade but support it. But his employment at his family’s company actually comes in handy for their plan. They have not told Tommy about Malcolm’s role in whatever is happening, nor have they told him of the list and that they believe Malcolm to be behind everything. But they have told him that they are investigating a higher up in the company and that Felicity just needs a couple of moments to get the data.

Tommy had been reluctant at first, but once they explained their plan and the importance of them getting the data, he agrees to cover for Oliver and make it out that he and Oliver have a planned meeting.

The first part of the plan goes off without a hitch, both Oliver and Felicity get in without much difficulty and are pressing the button to head up to Tommy’s floor when some other guy walks in with them. Felicity can feel Oliver tensing, annoyance rising in him as Felicity regretfully stops pressing the door shut button, and then the idiot has to go and start flirting with her. The bond with Oliver has grown so much that she can feel his emotions whenever they are strong enough and in that moment they definitely are. Heat burns down the bond, Oliver growing angry that the other man would even dare to talk to her and Felicity cannot help but react to it.

Oliver’s hand jerks out, hitting the files that the other guy is holding and he goes stumbling out after them, leaving the soulmates alone. “You’re such a caveman.” Felicity says as they rise.

“Yes.” Oliver grunts and then he leans over to give her a searing kiss, filled with promises about what that heat will become when they get back home.

“Coms.” Diggle’s voice comes, strained. Felicity flushes, embarrassed to have just been overheard kissing on the coms, but Oliver just leans back with a smirk.

They meet Tommy at the top floor and he nods at them before directing them to the server room. Oliver remains plastered by Felicity’s side the entire way, Tommy sticking to the hallways to keep lookout as a favour to the soulmates. Having Oliver beside her helps with the overwhelming nerves rising in her as she thinks about her task and limited timeframe, but her stomach is still a roiling mass. He hovers over her as she works, anxiously looking between her and the door as if he is expecting somebody to come bursting in on the attack at any moment. Felicity can feel through their bond just how scared he is, even though the job is relatively simple and they have an excellent excuse for their presence there. She knows that it is just because he has lost so many people and cannot handle the idea of losing her too.

Diggle’s voice sounds, warning them that a security guy is on his way to check the server room but Felicity is still not done. Oliver’s fingers start rubbing together in that tell-tale sign that he is itching to have a bow at nocking point in his hands but she tries to calm him with reassuring waves through the bond, even as her heart beats faster than a hummingbird’s wings. Her soulmate is actually coiling up to prepare to attack as the guard is about to enter when they hear Tommy’s voice, “Ollie?” he asks in his ditsy billionaire playboy tone, “Fliss? Where’d you get to?”

“Mister Merlyn?” The guard asks, noticing his boss’ son approaching. Oliver and Felicity exchange an apprehensive looks as they hide behind the half-opened door, the guard’s fingers visible where they are wrapped around it.

“Ah!” Tommy says as if he has only just noticed the security guy, “Have you seen Ollie or Fliss?” Felicity can imagine his flirtatious grin as he continues, “You know, tall guy, dark blonde hair, short girl, bright blonde. Both irresistibly attractive. Though, of course, not nearly as attractive as me.”

“Um…” The guard has no chance to say anything, Tommy’s voice reappearing ever so slightly brighter than before.

“Ah! Yes, good idea, they might have snuck away into here.”

And before anything else can happen, Felicity feels something spark in Oliver at Tommy’s words. Without any preamble he is roughly grabbing her hips, swinging her onto the desk and nestling his hips between her legs as he does his utmost to ruck up her shirt and make a mess of her appearance, his lips descending on hers. The feeling of those plush lips is almost enough to make Felicity forget their situation, losing herself to her soulmate’s passion. She can tell that he is getting lost in it too, because he genuinely startles when Tommy exclaims, “There you two are! I should’ve guessed you’d have snuck off like this.” His tone changes to exasperation, addressing the guard instead, “They’re absolutely insatiable, you know? Can’t go five minutes without putting their paws all over one another.”

Oliver slowly withdraws, his dark eyes boring a hole into Felicity’s with their intensity. She knows that they must both be in complete disarray, those thirty seconds more than enough for them to have made a mess of one another. Felicity can feel herself blushing – both from being caught in such a situation (even if she now realises that must have been the plan) and from the knowledge that, even though Tommy had been spinning their cover, he is completely correct about them. They really are insatiable. Breathing heavily, and not once removing his eyes from Felicity’s or making an effort to step back from between her legs, Oliver speaks, “Sorry, Tommy.” His lips quirk in that fake, vapid smile that Felicity hates, “Couldn’t resist making the most of an empty room and a few minutes spare.”

Felicity pushes him a little so that she can right her casual Big Belly polo. It brings into focus the sharp contrast between her own attire and Oliver’s, the dressed down components of her own clothing and the smart suit that he is adorning. Her stomach clenches at the sight of him in that suit, debauched from less than a minute between her thighs. Then she looks at his ugly grin again and remembers that it is neither the time nor the place.

“Well your minutes are gone now, you’ll have to restrain yourself for a bit, we need to get going.” The guard by Tommy’s side is properly taking in the scene now, his initial shock dissipating, and Felicity knows that they definitely do need to leave before he asks too many questions. Like why she is dressed like a Big Belly delivery girl and yet in a server room having the life kissed out of her by Oliver Queen.

“Right you are.” Oliver notices the same thing as Felicity, both of them working in synchronicity, and keeps a wary eye on the other man as he unnecessarily helps her down from the desk and keeps her hand in his, “Let’s go.” Felicity stays quiet, knowing that the two billionaires are less likely to invite questions than she is.

The guard keeps watching them, her in particular as they retreat, but they eventually make it out and are about to exit through the glass doors when they bump into a familiar face. Thea and Roy are there, looking shifty and making Oliver’s jaw tick furiously as he talks to them, Felicity and Tommy hanging back together.

“Ollie looks mad.” Tommy observes.

“It’s probably vigilante related.” Tommy’s eyebrow raises in question, “Well Thea knows, but Roy still doesn’t. I’ve been trying to convince Oliver to let her tell him but he’s being stubborn. I assume it’s some big brother nonsense but whatever it is, it has Roy running around the Glades chasing after the Hood because he’s got some sort of hero worship thing for him and Thea’s going with him to try to keep him out of trouble as much as she can.”

“Why won’t he just let her tell him?” Tommy frowns, “There’s no logical reason for him not to know. You just said he sees the Hood as a hero and on top of that he’s Thea’s soulmate and he’s not likely to do anything to send his brother-in-law to jail is he?”

Felicity sighs, “There’s no _logical_ reason, no.” Tommy seems to understand that, and then Oliver comes over to them with murder on his face and Felicity resolves to once again try to convince her soulmate to be reasonable (unlikely) that night.

When they’re done, they go and pick up Ada from the mansion. After the Big Belly cover, Felicity has a craving and when she mentions it to Oliver and Ada, the little girl’s excitement combined with Felicity’s pout is enough to have Oliver reluctantly giving in on his crusade to improve their eating habits and let them go for burgers. Their usual spot is already taken when they get there, and the little family and Diggle have to go to another booth. Felicity can immediately feel how uncomfortable the new place is making Oliver. It is right in the centre of the restaurant, exposed on all sides to people and with a hundred different blind spots. Oliver makes sure to strategically place himself in the most vulnerable place, with Diggle on the other side so that the two of them can cover as much space as possible and keep Felicity and Ada protected between them, but there is just no way for him to cover everything.

If it were not for Ada’s excitement, Felicity would just make them all leave, but she can tell that Oliver wants to do this for his daughter now that she’s got her heart set on it. So they sit and eat, the quietness brought about by Oliver’s stress only being broken by Ada’s cheerful babbling, and Felicity makes sure to place her smaller hand in Oliver’s in order to lend him what support she can. Gratefulness washes over her through their bond, his hand turning so that he can engulf hers and they do not once let go of one another until the meal is done and they leave with their daughter, now half asleep, cradled in his arms.

Felicity makes the mistake of thinking that it is all done, that now that they are through the meal, the stress of their vulnerability during it will be gone from Oliver and they will never have to think of any of it again beyond their daughter’s sweet rambles. And for a night that is the case. A little possessively, Oliver insists on getting their daughter, who has fallen asleep on the ride home, ready for bed. Felicity lets him, knowing that he needs it after his fear the last few hours and waits for him in their living room, looking over the fob of data they stole from Merlyn Global and thinking about what she might find on it the next day.

When Oliver is done with Ada, he reappears and sits with Felicity, wrapping himself around her until she is almost entirely engulfed by his body. She does not mind, she likes it even. She feels protected with him around her and she enjoys the feeling that it gives him to feel like he is protecting her. But, true to Tommy’s earlier statement, they are unable to stop their comforting holding from quickly turning to kissing. The passion from their cover in Merlyn Global reignites and sends them over the edge, both that heat and the franticness of Oliver’s movements brought on by the last few hours burning between them, leaving both of them covered in the marks of their coupling and completely exhausted in the very best way.

It is a wonderful night, especially after the day that they had. It is exactly what both of them need, a break from the madness that is their lives. A couple of hours to forget their stresses. The next morning is when their problems begin. Felicity wakes up to dozens of missed calls from her mother, her phone blowing up with texts and social media notifications and even attempts to contact her from Thea, Moira and even Walter. She looks over to see Oliver, a dark mask settled over his face, sitting up in bed beside her his eyes affixed to his own phone. And she knows that something has happened.

“Oliver?” she asks, voice still rough. He says nothing, the only way that she knows he has heard her is from the way that his jaw ticks and from the wave of anger that she feels coming from him, “Oliver, what’s wrong? What’s happened?” she is panicking now, heart pounding as she thinks about everything that could have happened – what would be so serious that even her mother would call her from a thousand miles away.

Oliver still looks incapable of saying anything, and instead telling her anything, he gets out of their bed, pulling on some boxers and sweatpants and throwing her his shirt, still not looking at her. He then vanishes from their bedroom, disappearing down the hall without an explanation. Their bond is cold and dark and tumultuous, making a pit form in her stomach and Felicity is torn between following him and forcing him to talk and checking her phone to find out what is happening all the faster. She has no chance to do either, Oliver reappearing with a yawning Ada in his arms mere seconds later.

“Wha’s wrong, Daddy?” she yawns, slumped into her father’s chest as he repositions himself in their bed next to Felicity. Oliver, still mute, just tightens his grip on the two year old, kissing her head as his other hand reaches out for Felicity so that he can hold them both. The move relieves Felicity, she knows that it is not anything that she has done, it is not her at whom the anger is directed. Oliver reaches out for his phone, handing it over to Felicity and it is then that she sees his hand trembling ever so slightly, his fury visceral.

She looks down at the device to see the website for a trashy gossip magazine on the screen, and is about to turn to Oliver in wonderment of why it would infuriate him so much when she sees the article that is pulled up.

_OLLIE’S HIDDEN FAMILY: THE SHAMEFUL SECRETS OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS QUEENS_

_By Susan Williams_

_Yesterday at 18:03, Ollie Queen, once the infamous playboy billionaire of Starling and now a recovered castaway, was spotted entering a local Big Belly Burger joint with his bodyguard, a regular blonde bimbo and, most curiously, a toddler by his side. Queen sat in the centre of the room (see below for pictures) with the odd group and stayed for almost an hour before leaving again._

_Speculation has been rife about Queen’s activities since his return to the island, and his mysterious absence from the clubbing scene since and now it finally becomes clear why he has been MIA. An anonymous source at Queen’s family’s company, the arrogantly named Queen Consolidated, confirms that the blonde spotted with Queen is none other than one Felicity Smoak, an IT girl who works for the company. The child seen with them is Smoak’s young daughter. Our source informs us that Queen has been making regular visits to the company, often even picking up the toddler from the free day care offered there, and always seems to gravitate around Felicity Smoak._

_Well, this reporter can confirm that Smoak is none other than Queen’s soulmate. That’s right, Ollie Queen has a soulmate, the playboy extraordinaire is tied down. Reports show that Smoak’s daughter has no known father and she seems to be clinging to Queen like a parasite. It would make sense that Queen be bonded to a loose woman, after all he does have a history with them. And the evidence that this reporter has unearthed would suggest that Smoak, 23, is a lucky gold-digger looking to use their bond to climb through the ranks of QC on her knees and to hold on to her commitment-phobe soulmate by getting Queen attached to her young daughter. We can only hope that Queen sees her for what she is and is somehow able to find a way to handle being bonded to such an opportunistic, manipulative young woman._

_The remaining question is that of the child. Smoak must be far too busy on her back to properly take care of the little girl and there’s no doubt that Queen’s 5 years on a deserted island must have messed with him in ways that he is hiding. It’s doubtful that a man like Ollie has the capacity to be a suitable surrogate father to the girl and she is in for a lifetime of neglect unless her biological father is able to show up and take her back or social services can get involved._

_And to the women of Starling: don’t despair. Queen’s best friend Tommy Merlyn is still on the market and, knowing Queen’s track record, it is only a matter of time before he grows bored of his new domestic life and uses his spare time away from the blonde girls he is attached to find somebody taller and slimmer he can spend a night with._

By the time that Felicity gets to the end of the article, her blood is boiling, making the bond between she and Oliver violent with their combined fury. She can see now why he is holding on to Ada so tightly, why his arm around her waist is just shy of what would hurt their daughter. Whoever this Susan Williams woman is, she must have some serious grudge against Oliver to have written something so truly diabolical about him and their family. This woman knows nothing about what Oliver has been through, or what kind of man he is today. If she had, she would not have called him ‘Ollie’ for a start.

She has written the article as if everything in it is fact, like she has a clue what she is talking about and she does not. She knows nothing about them. And yet she still saw fit to not only suggest that Felicity is some manipulative sociopathic gold-digger, but also that she and Oliver are unfit parents and that Ada is being neglected. And that is what really bothers Felicity. She can handle the comments about her, she had expected them to come one day, but for somebody to say stuff like that about Ada? About Oliver? That, she cannot handle. That is what makes her want to get her hands on the nearest available device with WiFi so that she can bring Miss Williams’ life crashing down around her.

Oliver is vibrating behind Felicity, his chest tense against her skin. She can feel the fury emanating from him, for sure, but she can also feel the other emotions it is obscuring. She knows how hurt he is, how scared he is, how worried he is.

“I would never.” He grits out, breaking the silence that has been so oppressive that even Ada has not said a word, “I would never, ever treat you or Ada the way that she is saying.” Felicity wants to assure him that she knows, she has seen what a wonderful partner and father he is, how loyal he is to their family. She knows what kind of man he is. But she can tell that he needs to say this, to get it out, “I know that you’re not using me, and I know that you love me and I need you to know that the two of you are my whole world. You’re my always, I just want the chance to be yours and I will never do anything to risk that. I will never treat either of you badly, I will never cheat on you and most importantly, if my issues ever even begin to affect Ada in any way, I will find a therapist and make sure that I do everything to stop that from happening and keep her – keep both of you safe.”

Felicity turns so that she is facing Oliver, hands resting on his shoulders as she rises to her knees, Ada between them, “I know. Of course I know. If I had any doubts about any of that, we would not be sat here right now. I never would have let you close if I thought you would do anything but love us with your whole heart and soul. Her hand touches his marks, something that brings them both immense comfort, “I love you.”

“I love you, Daddy.” Ada speaks, eyes wide as she senses the emotions running wild in the room, even if she does not know the cause, “You’s the best daddy ever.”

Oliver’s eyes are shining as his hand cups Ada’s tiny face, “You’re the best Ada-Bug ever.” He smiles.

“I’m the _only_ Ada-Bug!” Ada whines, rolling her eyes.

“Well then, you’re the best Ada ever.” Oliver smiles a little at his daughter.

She gasps, “Even better than Ada Lovelace?” Ada well knows her namesake.

“Even better than Ada Lovelace.”

“Woah.” Ada sits back, thinking about that.

Oliver leans forwards to press a kiss to Felicity’s chest, resting his head against her, “Today just got a lot more complicated.” He groans, “Can you do the work from here or do you need the Foundry’s system?”

“I could do it here but it would take days instead of hours, I need the processing in the Foundry.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to Diggle and work out how to sneak all of us down there.” Oliver reaches for his phone, “You’re not going to work today, my mother messaged, she’s going to have to talk to PR about where to go from here and you can return later this week.”

Felicity would be disappointed but she is just relieved, she could not face work right now. “Your mom called?” she bites her lip, “Is she…”

“She doesn’t blame you, Felicity. Don’t be silly. She’s furious but not at you. She’s already called the family lawyer – Jean Loring, she facilitated my legal return from the dead – and is looking into suing this Susan Williams person and the magazine both. If she can, I wouldn’t put it past her to get the mag shut down and Williams blacklisted by every outlet in the country.”

“You don’t… know Williams?” Felicity asks hesitantly, picturing some sordid history between the two.

“Not officially, no.” Oliver explains, “From what I’ve worked out whilst you were sleeping this morning, she’s had a history of writing scathing articles about my family ever since the Gambit went down. And then when I returned she had the gall to ask my mother for an exclusive with me like that was even a remote possibility after the stuff she’s said. Mom got her fired from her previous job too for releasing confidential information illegally, so she has a grudge against my family.”

“Why would she write that stuff though? Why did she release the information?”

Oliver hesitates, “I think… maybe… it’s possible that I rejected her once? I’m not fully sure but I looked her up earlier and I feel like I remember her face and I remember her coming on to me and me turning her down.”

“And she’s developed her whole career around a grudge on you for that?” A gust of air leaves Felicity’s mouth, “Wow, some people really do baffle me.”

“Some people are just like that.”

In that moment, Felicity’s phone rings and her heart drops. It is Donna Smoak. Her mother. Oliver sees it too, excitement filling him when he sees the name and then Ada spots the photo that comes up (one of the three Smoak women all together). She lunges for the phone with a squeal of “Bubbe!” as she answers it. Felicity can hear a rapid stream of garbled speech coming from the phone that Ada has snatched up to her ear, “Bubbe!” Ada repeats, trying to get Donna’s attention, “Bubbe! Is me! Bubbe! Is Ada not Momma!” the stream cuts off, a short sound coming instead, “I good Bubbe. How’s you?” another pause, “Momma’s here with Daddy!” Ada holds out the phone, “Here Momma, Bubbe want you.” She says helpfully.

Hesitantly, well aware of her daughter’s inquisitive stare and Oliver’s excitement, Felicity answers the phone, “Hi Mom.” Immediately, she is inundated with her mother’s voice reprimanding her for never mentioning that she knows Oliver Queen, that she never said she had found her soulmate and a million different things in between. The prevailing theme is Donna’s newfound hatred of Susan Williams after seeing what the reporter wrote about Felicity. Donna does not believe a word of the article as far as the character assassination Williams had done to Felicity and Oliver goes and she is just about ready to stab somebody. Felicity thinks that any of her worries about introducing Donna and Moira – two women who are totally different from one another – would be rendered irrelevant if they just introduced them right now. They would unite in their righteous motherly indignation.

“Mom,” Felicity eventually manages to get her mother to stop talking, “Not that it’s not great to hear from you, and not that I’m not sorry I never mentioned Oliver to you, but now isn’t exactly the best time. We’ve got a lot of damage control to do today and Moira – that’s Oliver’s mom – is already in talks with her lawyer and PR department as to how to handle this. I promise I’ll call you back soon and we’ll talk but right now I really need to deal with this mess.”

“Of course, baby girl.” Donna says, understanding, “I’ll come over to you as soon as possible to meet your lovely new soulmate and see my favourite granddaughter but you sort out this first, that’s fine.” Donna Smoak might be the most exuberant woman ever, and she often forgets the meaning of the word boundary where Felicity is concerned, but she does understand Felicity’s need to deal with things herself. She is, after all, the one who taught Felicity to be so independent.

“Thanks Mom.” Felicity sighs with relief that her mother is taking it so well, it could have been a battle.

“Send my love to my little Ada and to Oliver.”

“I will, love you Mom.” Felicity continues, “I am sorry I never said anything, we’ve been keeping it on the down low, we only just told Oliver’s family recently.”

“We’ll talk about that.” She pauses, “Does he treat you and Ada well?”

“He’s the best.” Felicity says with all of the confidence she possesses.

“Good. Well, I love him already, I can’t wait to meet him.”

“Soon, I promise. We just have a lot that we need to sort out first – our lifes are kind of a mess right now. But soon. I love you, Mom.”

“Bye baby, love you.” Felicity hangs up.

“Well that went easier than expected.”

“Don’t get used to it.” Oliver grumbles, “It’ll be the only easy thing today.”

He is right, they catch a reporter’s van tailing them on their way to Verdant, both of them in the back trying to wade their way through the mass of messages they have received as Diggle drives. Eventually, as Diggle is expertly working to shake the tail, Oliver has to take Felicity’s phone from her and delete her social media apps, the hate she has received overnight setting both of them too far on edge. Felicity tries not to take any of it to heart, but it is hard not to when a thousand people have all shouted the same insults at her and many of those insults are the same as things she has thought of herself before. Oliver, meanwhile, is taking every word that has been said about them personally and she has never seen him look more like he wants to murder somebody before. Not even Helena Bertinelli or the Dark Archer.

There is a small crowd of reporters already around Verdant, but they manage to slip past and get into the Foundry via the back entrance. Thea and Tommy are already there and they fuss over the trio as they walk in with Diggle. Once Ada is happily in her Uncle Tommy’s arms and is demanding that he play Hood verses criminal with her (she is the Hood), Felicity gets to work on the data. It takes hours for her to work her way through.

During those hours, Tommy and Thea leave with Ada and Diggle goes to check on Carly and AJ, but Oliver sticks with her until the end, working out his frustrations on the salmon ladder until he finally stops and comes to sit by her feet. “If this works,” he says after a long time, Felicity still hard at work, “I’ll be done.”

“What?” she snaps her head around to look at him.

“The list is all of the people involved in the Undertaking… and by fighting them I’ve been treating the symptoms of the disease that has befallen this city, but I haven’t been finding a cure. If we work out what the Undertaking is, if we stop Malcolm, that’s a cure. That’s how we win. And if we do that, the list becomes obsolete. My mission will be over.”

“Oliver… what are you saying?”

Oliver looks up at her, open and vulnerable, “After you came to the mansion and met Mom, she gave me this and I’ve been holding on to it trying to find the right time and I know that this isn’t some grand gesture or romantic occasion but,” he shifts so that he is no longer leaning against the leg of her desk as he sits on the floor, but he is kneeling before her on one knee, “Felicity Megan Smoak, you are the light of my life and the a more perfect soulmate than I could ever have imagined. Living with you, raising our daughter together, it is beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve never been as happy as I am with the two of you in my arms and all that I want in our future is to hold the two of you forever. To grow our family and be happy. Will you make me the happiest man on the face of the Earth?” he opens a small box, revealing a ring, “Marry me?”

Felicity gapes, just about managing to choke out, “Oliver?”

He shifts, uncertain, “I just- if my mission is over, I’ll finally be able to live my life. I want to be happy. And there is nothing that makes me happier than you and Ada, no other life that I want to lead. So, if you’re willing, I want you to be my wife Felicity, and I want to be Ada’s father officially.” She still does not answer, in shock, “Felicity?”

It startles her from her reverie, “Yes!” she falls to the floor, kneeling with him, “Of course I want to marry you, I love you. You and our daughter are my whole world, of course I’ll be your wife.”

“Yes?” he checks.

“Yes!” he lunges down, less far to go than he usually does when they are stood up, and kisses her with everything in him, elated.

“You’re going to be my wife?” he still looks surprised.

“You’re going to be my husband.” She smiles.

Oliver is leaning in for another kiss when a little voice yells out, “Family hugs!” and they are attacked by the tiny monster that they made so many years before.

“What’s going on here?” Tommy asks, walking in with an armful of Big Belly takeout behind Thea.

Thea screams, “Oh my god! What is that on your finger?” she points to the hand that is resting in Oliver’s, his thumb still in place where he has stroked the band of metal on her skin, “You’re getting married?”

Oliver and Felicity stand, Oliver pulling Ada up with them as they go, “We’re getting married.” He confirms, almost bashfully. And then, in addition to their armful of Ada, they have an armful of Thea too.

“You’re going to be my sister officially!” Thea yells, hugging Felicity fiercely.

“Momma an’ Daddy getting’ married?” a small voice says from Oliver’s arms.

“Yeah baby, we’re getting married?”

“That means I have to go away?” Ada’s lower lip wobbles, her eyes filling with tears.

“What? No!” Oliver exclaims, moving Ada so that she is forced to look at him, “No, Ada, why would you say that? Why would you have to go away?”

“’Cause you an’ Momma want to be a family now.” She sniffles.

“Momma and I are already a family, Ada-Bug.” Oliver says softly, “We’re already a family and you’re our family too. That’s never going to change, all that’s going to change is that Momma and I will have some rings on our fingers and I’ll be your daddy in the eyes of the world too. Nothing else, promise. You’ll always be our Ada-Bug and you’ll always be with us.”

“I don’ have to go away?” Ada asks, still quiet, “You’s still be my daddy?”

“We’ll always be your momma and daddy, baby girl.” Felicity swears.

“An’ now you an’ Daddy be married?”

“Yes, baby.”

“We be a family forever?”

“Always, that’s what marrying means.” Oliver vows to her too.

“Okay,” Ada sniffles, “I wanna be a family for always.”

“Ada,” Felicity says, knowing just how to cheer her girl up, “A wedding means a party and a party means a dress and since you’re our Ada, you’ll have a special role in the wedding and you’ll need an extra special dress.”

“I gets a special dress?” Ada suddenly seems infinitely more excited about the wedding.

Felicity nods, “You and Bubbe can come with me and Auntie Thea and you can help us all buy our pretty dresses.”

Ada grins, “I like weddin’s.”

Felicity’s computers then ping, signifying that the data has all been analysed by her programmes and Oliver has to go out and get back to work, searching for the device that she has just learnt has the power to level the Glades. Ada babbles about dresses with Thea in the background, envisioning something with a lot of glitter and colours that sounds very much Donna Smoak inspired, and it helps Felicity distract herself from her fear as Oliver goes after their latest target. When Tommy sees the screens, he gasps. “That’s my father.” He says, making Felicity look up at him sharply, “Oliver is attacking my father.”

“Your father is behind everything, Tommy. He’s planning to destroy the Glades.” Felicity says, trying to be sensitive even as she worries over Oliver.

Tommy gulps, “How is… how is he fighting like that? How is he holding his own against Oliver?”

“Oh my god.” she gasps, “It’s him. Malcolm is the Dark Archer, there’s no other explanation.”

“Back when my father was hit with that curare bullet when Oliver revealed himself to me, he took me up to his office in the Merlyn Global building to protect the both of us and he fought our attackers. My dad… my dad is the Dark Archer.” He says in shock, but Felicity has no time to comfort him, she is refocusing on the mission and Oliver has just gone into a blind spot, somewhere she cannot see.

“Oliver, Oliver Tommy just said that the Dark Archer is his father! Repeat, the Dark Archer is not working for Merlyn, he _is_ Merlyn!” Oliver just grunts, in the heat of the battle, and Felicity’s heart pounds as she listens to her soulmate fight against the one man she knows has defeated him in combat before. Oliver switches up his technique, taunting Merlyn about Tommy and his plan now that he realises he does not have the physical advantage but it only serves to increase Merlyn’s voracity. The last that Felicity hears of Oliver is the sound of Malcolm Merlyn unmasking him before the com goes down.

**Sacrifice**

_Praying that this was the very first page, not where the storyline ends_

Felicity whirls around to Tommy, “Tommy,” she demands, “Tell us everything.” Her soulmate could be dead. He could be dead and she can do nothing about it. Except she knows that he is not dead, she can feel it. She can feel him. She clings to that, to the bond between them. Oliver is unconscious and exhausted but not dead, not yet. She has no time to waste.

Tommy gives up everything that he knows without a fight and Felicity uses it to refine her searches, feeling around for where Oliver could be and chasing up the lead in the direction that she feels that her bond is pulling her. It works, she spots a trail and puts out a call to Diggle, sending the man after Oliver. She then turns to Thea, “Thea, take Ada back to the mansion and wait there, it’s too dangerous for her to be here right now, she’s our priority. Please just… protect her.” Thea nods and leaves, barely giving Ada enough time to say goodbye.

Oliver has half escaped by the time that Diggle gets to him, the older man having been on the opposite side of town. He is beat up but okay and Felicity calls Thea to let her future sister-in-law know. “Oliver,” she sobs into his shoulder when he returns, “You can’t do that. You have to survive, Oliver. You have to come back to us.”

“Hey, hey.” He whispers into her, “Always, I’ll always come home to you.”

When she is reassured of his safety, the three of them sit and plan their next move, completely focused on everything that is to come until Thea calls and tells them that Moira is holding a press conference at the mansion. A press conference in which she confesses to having been complicit in Malcolm Merlyn’s plans to level the Glades and is arrested.

“Well,” Oliver says, “I guess we’re not the biggest news story in the Queen family anymore.”

“Oliver,” she reprimands, knowing that he is trying to cover his true feelings by deflecting.

Oliver recognises her tone, “I know,” he sighs, “I’m sorry. But I can’t… I can’t focus on that right now. First we need to stop Merlyn, then we can worry about my mother.”

“I can help there.” Tommy says, voice stronger than it has been in hours, “Nobody knows my father, but if anybody comes close it’s me, unfortunately.” He sounds bitter and Felicity cannot blame him. She knows how many times she has wished that she were not the one person most capable in the world of understanding Noah Kuttler and his every move.

With Tommy’s help, they find the three most likely locations for the device and as they are speculating, he voices an idea, “My father is good at planning. The only real advice that he’s ever given me is to always have a backup plan. I think… I think it’s likely that there will be more than one device.” He admits, looking like he is on the verge of throwing up.

Felicity’s spine chills, “M-more than one device?” she manages.

“Yes.” Tommy swallows a perceived lump in his throat, “It’s the sort of thing that he would do, especially with Oliver running round in the hood, he might underestimate Oliver’s capabilities and resources,” Tommy looks pointedly at Felicity at this, “But he’s not stupid. He’s arrogant but cautious and the exact type of man to have a backup plan.”

“Felicity.” In that one word, Oliver communicates all that he needs to.

“I know.” She nods, taking Oliver’s vigilante phone and preparing herself for a long night.

“No,” Oliver rests his hand on her shoulder, making her look back up at him, “I need you to go.” He crouches down before her, free hand going to sit over hers and stroking where the ring he put on her finger not so long ago still rests, “I need you to go back to the mansion and to be with Thea and Ada and Raisa, you can run coms from there.”

“No.” Felicity replies, forceful, “I won’t.”

“Felicity.” He warns, “I’m begging you, get to safety.”

“No. If you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving.” She insists, “Besides, I need the processing down here if you’re going to stand a chance against Merlyn, if you’re to stand a chance of winning.”

A strange look crosses Oliver’s face, making Felicity’s heart stop, “But you don’t plan on winning, do you?”

“I plan on winning.” He argues.

“But at the cost of your own life.” She cries, “You plan on dying.”

“I don’t intend to. It’s just that-”

“No!” she tears her hand from his and hits him in the chest, “No, Oliver! You don’t get to die! You don’t get to leave Ada and I alone all over again! You have to _survive_.” Oliver looks like a broken man, staring at her as he wants to comfort her in her heartbreak but he also cannot make a promise he might be unable to keep.

“Oliver.” Her hands fist in his shirt, holding him close to her as the bond between them writhes in the agony of Oliver’s impending fate.

“I can’t beat him, honey. He’s too good.” Oliver whispers, pained, “He’s beat me before.”

“Well you just have to fight that much harder this time!” Felicity insists, “You have to fight for Ada, for me, for _this_.” She brandishes her ring, “You have to come back. You promised me always, you promised you’d always come back to me.” Oliver’s face twists in anguish at the reminder.

“I will always fight to come home to you.” He vows again, “But sometimes it is beyond my power. I don’t know if I can beat him.”

“Not alone, you can’t.” Comes the voice of John Diggle, “But this time you won’t be alone.”

“And this time you have me.” Chimes in Tommy, “I know I can’t fight him like you can but I can offer you an advantage that you didn’t have before. Being Malcolm Merlyn’s son has to be good for something.”

“Oliver.” Felicity whispers, imploring him.

He looks at the friends surrounding him as if after so long fighting alone he cannot quite understand their support, as if he wants to tell them to escape just like he has asked Felicity. But then he looks back at her and she feels something give in him, “Okay. Okay, we’ll fight.” Felicity can feel it in him, the hope rising. The thought that he might actually survive and get to be there to marry her and raise Ada and maybe even make a couple more little Adas along the way. He is no longer fighting to die, he is fighting to live. And that will make him so much stronger than before. So much stronger than Malcolm, who is still fighting for revenge even after two decades.

Felicity calls Lance and sends him to the first possible location for the device – the site of Rebecca Merlyn’s murder. Tommy asks for something to do and she sends him to the second location, hoping that there is nothing there for him to do but knowing that she needs to take advantage of having an extra pair of hands around to do the job. Lance calls in, the device right before him and Felicity is only just getting started on dismantling it when Tommy calls, “The location is empty, Felicity. What’s the next location?”

Relief floods her, if the device was not there, it is unlikely to be anywhere else. But Tommy still needs something to do, and she sends him chasing down the third location even as she guides Lance through dismantling the first device and listens to her soulmate and best friend fighting their other friend’s father.

She has to drown out Oliver’s noises, the anxiety affecting her to the point where she is fumbling over the dismantling and wasting precious seconds that she does not have to waste. The device is half neutralised when Tommy reappears on the coms system, “Felicity, Felicity! I found it, there’s a device here!” her heart sinks. There is so little time. They could go off at any second and they will go off soon, of that there is no doubt. She cannot deal with both devices at once. But then she hears Oliver cry out in pain and she knows that she has to. For him. For Ada. For the Glades.

Tommy’s device is easier to stop, her experience from the first one allowing her to speed through the process with him. And then it is done. They have succeeded. Two devices down.

Oliver screams out in agony.

“Oliver!” she yells down the com before she can think twice about it. He coughs over the coms, his breath rattling in his lungs, “You promised!” she shouts, “You promised me, Oliver Queen. Come back, you promised to come back. You don’t get to die.”

“I’m,” he pauses to cough again, “I’m okay, it’s okay.” She hears him staggering to his feet and then her fingers begin to fly over the keyboard in an effort to find him, she cannot. “I stabbed us both t-”

“You WHAT?” she shrieks.

“It’s okay.” He rushes to repeat, I had to… to stop him winning, Felicity. I-I was careful, I did it where I knew it would be s-safe.” Felicity is lost for words and Oliver mistakenly takes that for her understanding what he has done.

“You lose, Malcolm.” Oliver addresses the man on the floor, choking out his last few moments.

The sound that reaches Felicity’s ears is tinny and distant but she can just about make out the Dark Archer’s words, “If I’ve learnt one thing being a successful businessman, it’s redundancy.” Malcolm cackles, a thump signifying that he has fallen to the floor, “There’s a second device and it’ll be deploying any second now. _You_ lose, Oliver.”

Oliver stays quiet, and Felicity can feel his disgust as he looks upon Malcolm. Seconds pass in silence, Malcolm obviously awaiting Oliver’s reaction and the final success of his plan but it never comes.

“Here’s the thing, Malcolm.” Oliver says, “You may not have underestimated my ability to defeat you, but you did make one fatal error. You assumed that you were the smartest person in this game, that you could outplay everybody else all on your own. And not only are you not the smartest player, but you also neglected to consider who best knows you and whose side he would take.”

Malcolm gasps and Felicity cannot tell whether it is in realisation or pain, “Tommy?”

“He predicted you’d have a second device and, unfortunately for you, I have a genius for a soulmate and she found both of them and remotely disabled them with your own son’s help.” Oliver growls, pride emanating from his tone, “Tommy is smart enough to know that you cannot murder an entire neighbourhood in a city just because a few of them have done wrong, just because the system is failing them. He knows that those people don’t deserve to all be punished for what happened to Rebecca. You should have known too.”

Malcolm hisses, furious, “Well at least my plan wasn’t an entire failure.”

“How so?”

“You failed to predict that I would know where your little secret base is, right from the moment I first saw your face.” Felicity feels the blood drain from her once again, and can tell that Oliver is too.

“I presume that your lovely genius soulmate is there right now.” Felicity can hear the triumph in Malcolm’s words, “I suggest that you take this opportunity to say goodbye.”

“Felicity?” Oliver panics, “FELICITY?” but Felicity has no time to respond as her world becomes a cacophony of rumbling, crashing noise and blistering heat and everything comes crumbling down around her.

**Arrival**

_my thoughts will echo your name_

Oliver sits in the hospital, heart pounding with each second that passes without news. He has a desperate need to go storming through the place, to demand answers in a way that would very much expose him as the Arrow. He never could have imagined that his life would come to this, to the moment when he would be sitting with the pull in his chest that ties him to the love of his life pulled so taut that it is on the verge of snapping. He never thought that he would even find the person to whom he is tied, much less that she could become his whole world in the way that she has.

He thinks back to the moment after Malcolm’s Undertaking had failed, when the com settled in his ear had filled with the sounds of destruction and he felt sure that his heart had been destroyed too. He thinks to his own desperation, how he had left the half-dead Malcolm in Diggle’s care without a second thought, everything in him forcing him to race to the Foundry. To Felicity. To the place that the searing hot bond was pulling him, as desperate as he was for him to get there and save her and know that she would be okay. That she would not die because of him.

He had not waited for a professional to arrive and start removing the rubble, he could not. He just started digging and digging, lifting rocks and trying his best to trust the bond. To trust that she was still alive, to trust in that pull to draw him to her. To let him save her. The sirens of the fire engine were finally drawing near by the time that he first caught sight of her, pale and dirty and covered in blood and rubble. He pulled her out himself, barely having the time to shuck and hide his hood and quiver in the wreckage before they found him, crouched in the debris with her limp body in his arms, trying to staunch the flow of crimson liquid from her shoulder, where he had pulled her off a metal spike.

They tried to pry her from him but he refused, insisting that they let him carry her to the ambulance, that he be allowed to travel to hospital with her. The second that they saw the matching marks on the couple, it was allowed.

As he watched them work on his girl, he had the presence of mind to contact Tommy about sorting out the Verdant destruction to prevent anybody from stumbling on whatever remained of his activities as the Hood and he checked a message from Diggle telling him that Malcolm was alive and in the hands of the SCPD. And then, at the hospital, they carted her away from him and forced him to wait.

Oliver hates waiting, especially when it is Felicity’s life on the line. He never handles it well, and now is no exception. “Mister Queen,” a voice startles him from his thoughts, “You can come back in now.” On shaky legs, Oliver rises and follows the nurse, feeling numb as he pushes into the room, once again relying on the tether between him and his soulmate that tells him she is alive. Exhausted and hurt and barely holding it together. But alive.

She lies on the bed before him, pale and with dark circles under her eyes, still so beautiful, “Hey, gorgeous.” He whispers, going to sit beside her so that he can take her hand in his, “How are you feeling?”

“Like death warmed over.” She croaks.

Oliver’s small smile at seeing her alive drops, “Don’t joke about that. Not now.”

“Hey,” a finger strokes from his cheek to his chin, making him look directly into her eyes, “I’m okay. It couldn’t be helped. You did the right thing.”

He turns to drop a kiss on the palm of her hand, his own hand raising to cradle hers so that he can run his fingers over the ring on hers. She smiles a little and then her own fingers are tracing the matching ring that he wears, “Where is she?” she asks.

“Coming.” He answers, just as the door to the hospital room opens and reveals a young woman in scrubs with a tiny bundle of cloth in her arms.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” the woman says, “Ready to meet your little girl?”

Oliver’s breath hitches, no matter how many times this happens he will never cease to be amazed, it will never stop changing his world to watch his wife cradle their child in her arms for the first time, to see the eyes of their baby look upon his soulmate. She has green eyes and tufts of blonde hair and she is utterly fascinated by Felicity. Oliver cannot blame her. He is rather enamoured by his wife too.

“Hi, baby girl,” Felicity whispers to the infant resting against her bare chest, tiny and fragile but so fierce with her big eyes, “Hi, I’m your momma.” Felicity looks up at Oliver, tears in her eyes and he knows that his world is whole as she says, “And this here is your daddy.” As she angles the baby to Oliver.

His daughter’s eyes fix on him and even though she cannot yet smile, Oliver feels like she is smiling at him in her own little way as she lets out little burbles. Felicity gives him a look, offering out their daughter to him and he pauses only to strip his shirt before he takes the baby from her, reverently cradling her to his skin. “Hi Mia,” he says, aware that he has started to cry, “Hi little Mia, welcome to the world.” Her miniscule hand reaches up to grab at his scruff and Oliver can feel his tears wetting his youngest child’s hand but he cannot stop their flow.

The journey to this moment has been a long and arduous one, but Oliver would not change a minute of it. Not if it meant things would be different. The hardships that he and his family have faced have been more than worth it just so that he could have the life that he does.

After they thwarted the Undertaking, Felicity had spent a week in hospital healing before she could come home with Oliver, unfortunately without the ring that he had given her so soon before as it had been damaged beyond repair in the destruction. During that week, Donna Smoak rushed over from Vegas to see her daughter and granddaughter, unable to stay away as she knew Felicity had been hurt. She and Oliver got along fantastically, almost too well for Felicity’s liking. Their excited wedding planning together made Felicity groan at the thought of how impossible her life was about to become.

In all of the chaos of Lance reporting about the earthquake machines they disabled and Moira’s announcement to the people of Starling and the arrest of Malcolm Merlyn and destruction of Verdant, Oliver, Felicity and Ada had been granted a reprieve from the article written by Susan Williams. They still got photographed and followed but most of the questions pertained to the Undertaking rather than their little family. It gave them time to figure out how to best respond to her.

In Verdant’s explosion, several people had been hurt as well as Felicity and the riots that Moira’s announcements had caused (which Oliver later found out, to his fury, that Thea and Roy had been around for thanks to her leaving Ada with Raisa to go and save Roy and Roy’s refusal to leave the Glades) had left several dead and more injured. All of these incidents had been added to the charges against Malcolm and Moira during their trial and aided in the charging of those remaining on Oliver’s list who Moira exposed as a part of her plea deal. Thanks to Malcolm being the target of most people’s anger and Moira’s cooperation with the case as well as some excellent work on Jean’s part in spinning Moira as a victim, Moira was given a lighter sentence of community service to the Glades whilst Malcolm was given several life sentences.

During the trial, it also came to light that Thea’s father was Malcolm himself. It sent shockwaves through their family, leading to Oliver and Thea both estranging themselves from their mother until Ada brought them back to her. It also led to Moira guiltily admitting that Samantha Clayton, an old fling of Oliver’s had not actually lost her child and that Ada had an older brother, William, living in Central City. Together, Oliver and Felicity went to Samantha and made it clear that they understood why she did what she did but that she had no grounds to keep William from Oliver and they would fight for the right to see him. It led to a joint custody agreement that worked well for them all.

William and Ada got along immediately, both of them bonding easily over their shared love for tech and their genius intellects. William also fell for Felicity very quickly, absolutely fascinated by the genius woman who was to become his stepmother. As soon as all of this was sorted, and Felicity successfully bought up QC stock as investors sold it in droves, they turned the family’s focus to the Susan situation. They did an expose with Bethany Snow, a respectable reporter and shared everything they felt comfortable sharing before turning Jean’s expertise onto Williams. Susan soon found herself without a job and without many prospects in the city either.

Through all of this, the soulmate couple decided to continue their vigilante activities. Oliver earnt the moniker of the Arrow, the hero of Starling, rather than just the Hood once his contributions to stopping Merlyn became known and they did away with the list, instead focusing on the main causes of crime in the city. Tommy and Thea joined their crusade and, eventually, Roy too once Oliver gave in and let Thea tell him.

Oliver and Felicity married a year and a half after his proposal, with William at just shy of eight years old as their page boy and freshly four year old Ada as flower girl. It was a small wedding on the twenty-eighth of November, just an intimate group of friends and family present and it was perfect. Donna proudly gave her daughter away and spent the night gushing over her two grandchildren with Moira, the unlikely pair having grown rather close over the year.

By that time, Tommy had also ended his relationship with Laurel after a lot of nudging from his friends who could see how miserable she was making him. She never really came to terms with the fact that she and Oliver were not meant to be, and they could tell. He spent their wedding night flirting with anybody and everybody he came into contact with. Including, mistakenly, Lyla Michaels. John Diggle’s ex-wife, current girlfriend, mother of his twin children and badass secret agent, who was volatile on the first night away from the twins since their birth when Tommy tried it on with her. He ended the night with a sprained wrist and a new respect for John for living with the agent.

It only took another half a year for Oliver to convince Felicity it was time to try for another baby. Oliver’s unintentional goodbye present to her when he went off to defeat the League of Assassins was that very pregnancy. As soon as the League was defeated, they decided to retire from their vigilante days and bought a house big enough for their family in Ivy Town. Ada and William both loved it there with the large garden and surrounding greenery and their father’s food available at the drop of a hat.

In the January almost three years after they first got together, their family grew from a busy four to a chaotic six. Lucas and Tommy Smoak Queen were beloved by all of their relatives. From their adoring parents (both of whom were relishing the chance to finally get to raise their infants together) to their besotted older siblings to the grandparents who all spoiled them rotten – even Walter who sent gifts from London (where he moved after his divorce from Moira) at least three times a month.

They still had their bad times, and still had to help out with the vigilantes in Starling every so often, but they were happy. Felicity took over QC and occasionally lent tech help to the team whenever they were in dire need, Oliver became a stay at home dad, Thea retired from her vigilante life to focus on running Verdant with Tommy. And then, three years after the birth of the twins, Felicity found out she was pregnant again.

Oliver was ecstatic, naturally.

Mia Smoak Queen was a troublemaker in the womb, always moving around and kicking at Felicity. Oliver loved it when he could feel her but hated that Felicity was in pain. He tried to take some of their discomfort from her and into him but he could not do it all the time as it required focus and proximity. Focus was particularly hard to come by in a house with a thirteen year old, an eight year old and twin three year olds.

Mia really lived up to her troublemaker name on the day of her birth. Much like her big sister, she came early. Not as early as Ada had but early enough and with her umbilical cord twisted around her body enough that she had oxygen deprivation by the time she could be cut out. The emergency operation needed to save both her and Felicity’s lives had been one of the hardest things he ever had to watch, especially when he had to choose between following his daughter and staying with Felicity. In the end, he followed Mia until he was told he needed to leave to let the doctors focus and then he sat awaiting news on one of them, feeling like his heart was about to crumble.

But holding her in his arms, with his beloved wife smiling exhaustedly by his side he knows that it has all been worth it. He would go through it all over again if he could.

He and Felicity get a couple of hours of peace. Felicity feeds their daughter for the first time, something that Oliver will never get over seeing, and then Oliver holds Mia – she is so tiny, smaller than either of the boys even though she is not a twin because she is that much earlier than they had been but larger than he knows Ada was – as Felicity sleeps. The contentment she is feeding him through their bond the whole time swells tenfold as it meets his own, both of them in their own perfect world of peace.

Felicity has barely been awake again for ten minutes when a nurse slips into the room again, “Hi Smoak Queens,” she smiles, “You’ve got some very excited visitors waiting outside.” Oliver is both excited and a little disappointed that their bubble is about to be broken. He had been enjoying the moment just for the three of them but he has been looking forward to what comes next for months and cannot wait for it to happen.

“Let them in.” Felicity smiles, looking at Oliver with matching excitement as she cradles Mia.

**Always**

_I was enchanted to meet you_

The door opens up before William, who is carrying Lucas in his arms. Ada is holding Tommy’s hand to prevent his escape and cannot see past her older brother’s figure into the room. She looks back at Auntie Thea behind them, to see her ushering the four of them in with a reassuring smile before she steps through the door and lets it fall shut behind her.

“Is she asleep?” William asks, hushed. Tommy and Lucas are, for once, quiet as the look in awe at the bundle in their mother’s arms. As if in response to her biggest brother, Mia lets out a loud wail, proving to the whole family that not only is she awake but she also has an impressive set of lungs on her.

“Kids,” Her mom offers out Mia to the room making Ada’s heart pump just that much harder as she sees, for the first time, the little bundle in her mother’s arms, “Meet your baby sister, Mia.”

“Woah.” Lucas’ little mouth makes an ‘o’ as he looks at her, “She’s small.”

“You weren’t all that much bigger.” Oliver tells the elder of the twins. “Here, come and see.” He pulls both twins onto his knees so that they have a better view of their little sister, but once Tommy lets go of Ada’s hand to go to their father, she steps back again, retreating to the door to watch the scene with wide eyes.

“Why’s she all wrinkly, Daddy?” Tommy asks, scrunching up his nose.

“Because she’s so new and small. You were wrinkly when you were born too.”

“Oh.”

Shifting nervously on his feet, William asks Felicity, “Can… can I hold her?”

“Of course, buddy.” Felicity places Ada’s youngest sibling into her eldest sibling’s arms, crying again.

“Don’t cry, Momma.” Lucas whispers, climbing from Oliver’s knee and onto the bed she is lying on so that he can hug her.

“No tears, Momma.” Tommy adds, climbing after his twin.

“They’re good tears.” Felicity promises them, “Because I love you all so much.”

“Good tears are real?” Tommy asks.

“They’re very real.” Oliver confirms.

“You cried good tears when Tommy and me were born?”

“Everybody did.” Ada watches as her mom kisses both of her little brothers reassuringly on their heads.

She still remembers when they had been born. She had only been six at the time and so nervous to meet her little brothers. She had been afraid that once her parents had children that they both got to raise together right from the start, she and William would become surplus. Less important. She should have known that she was wrong, their parents are so loving, they has such big hearts, it would be impossible for them to love any of their children any less. And yet, now that she stands watching her family encircle the newest addition at nearly nine years of age, she cannot help but feel those same insecurities rising in her once again.

Perceptive as ever, her dad then looks to the uncharacteristically quietest member of their family. Ada is still pressed against the door in her favourite emerald green dress, the skirt loose and hanging around her knees, not taking her eyes away from William and Mia. She dressed in this outfit because, even though she knows that Mia will not remember a second of this, she wants to make a good first impression on her baby sister. She wants Mia to love her.

She remembers her reaction when her parents told her that they were going to have a baby over three years ago. She had confessed to being so scared that she and William would be neglected from the family, citing that because William had not been grown in Felicity’s stomach and because Oliver had not been there for her infancy they would love the new babies more and not want the two anymore. Though her parents had been quick to dispel the notion, and she had felt her own heart growing as she fell in love with the twins as they grew in her mother’s belly and then all over again when she held them for the first time, it had taken months after the twins’ births before she really believed them. Before she stopped waiting for something bad to happen.

Mia’s birth has, up until this moment, been something that she has been eagerly awaiting for months. She has been so excited to finally have a sister but now all of those long forgotten feelings from years ago are rising up in her again and she is frozen against the door, unable to meet her family in their happiness. “Hey Ada-bug,” her dad gestures for her to come to him, “Do you want to meet your little sister?” she nods mutely, walking over to him on numb legs, eyes still fixed on her brother and sister. “C’mere.” She is hoisted by her dad onto his knee, settling in so that she is leaning against his back as she has so often since she came into his life. The only real difference is that she no longer nestles straight in, her legs dangle over the edge of the chair now. She is still tiny, but so much larger than Mia and the twins. It brings into stark reality just how much has changed for them.

William walks over to the father and daughter, looking reluctant to relinquish the baby but knowing that this is something that Ada needs right now. Nervously, Ada holds out her arms for the baby and she gets a flash back to when she was so much smaller and they sat just like this against her dad as Felicity handed Tommy to her for the first time as William held Lucas. This time, instead of flooding her with doubt once again, she feels her memories surge and everything that she knows about babies rushes front and centre. Ada is a natural as soon as Mia is in her arms, looking down rapturously at her baby sister.

Mia is perfect. Ada’s heart beats faster, love exploding within it.

“Her eyes are green.” She notices, “I thought babies all had blue eyes.”

“Most do but some get colour faster. Mia must be one of those.” Felicity explains, and Ada can feel her mother’s eyes on her, her sister and father all sat together. She knows that her dad will be looking up at her mom right now, both of them feeling the emotions that the event of Mia’s birth must be causing, and having them amplified by their bond.

But she is not concerned with her parents in that moment, the only thing that matters is the infant in her arms, “She’s so pretty.” Ada whispers, “Hi Mia.” At her sister’s voice, Mia squirms in her blanket and reaches up. Ada’s hand is right next to Mia’s arm and Oliver and Felicity and their boys all watch as Mia’s miniscule hand, so tiny that her fingers are unable to wrap fully around one of Oliver’s fingers, grasps two of Ada’s tightly. Ada gasps at the feeling, staying still so that Mia can hold on to her and they all watch as Mia settles in her big sister’s arms, drifting back to sleep.

Ada looks around at her family, pride bursting in her chest to know that her little sister trusts her. Her little sister feels safe enough in her arms to fall asleep in them. William is hovering protectively next to his sisters and father, Felicity is carefully holding both of the curious twins and Oliver has settled Ada in his arms as she has been settled so often over the years, with Mia not letting go of her finger even in sleep. This. This is what makes everything worth it. All of their hardships, all of the people who have tried to hurt them in every way imaginable, every difficulty they have faced. All of her insecurities and doubts and worries. It is all worth it just for this one moment. In a hospital room where Ada’s entire family is gathered for the first time ever, where she can sit with her father’s arms lovingly encircling both her and Mia. Where she can see his eyes on her mother’s, the pulsing of their bond with every kind of love possible for somebody to feel so tangible that Ada feels like it is a physical thing she is aware of.

  
And she knows that just beyond the door everybody else is waiting. Uncle John and Auntie Lyla will be out there with their own twins, Sara and JJ – almost five years old now. Uncle Roy will be sat, watching as Thea paces anxiously in her eagerness to meet her newest niece, both of them sporting shiny new rings on their ring fingers. Uncle Tommy will be making jokes to hide his nervousness and excitement, his new boyfriend (who he is totally in love with) happily trying to calm him down even as he rejects the notion that he is even nervous to begin with. Bubbe Donna and Grandma Moira will be huddled together, impatient to meet their second granddaughter. Grandpa Walter will be waiting for news from London, planning to come for a visit as soon as possible.

She cannot wait for them to meet Mia. She cannot wait to leave the hospital and take her home and watch her grow and see what sort of person she will become. But for right now, all that she wants is to take in the quiet moment that she is being granted. With her family around her, her parents love filling the air and her siblings all by her side.

This is the life that her parents have fought so hard to give them and she plans to enjoy every minute of it.

With Mia finally in her arms and that new place in her heart growing to accommodate that new love, she remembers that she is and always will be loved. Ada remembers the love that her parents share and she knows that she will always have this. She will always have her family.

And they will always have her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everybody who has left kudos, commented and read this, especially to those of you who've made it to the end of this ridiculously long three-shot. It makes my day to see people enjoying something I made <3

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't before (unlikely), go read Cerys' incredible fics. There's a link above and she's on twitter [@smoaksmile](https://twitter.com/smoaksmile).
> 
> I'm on twitter [@MagusLibera](https://twitter.com/MagusLibera).


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